Defence of dissertation in geoinformatics, Jere Kaivosoja, M.Sc. (Tech.)

The core idea of precision farming is to spatially and timely optimize the farming inputs to maximize the farming outcomes while reducing the environmental stress. Often the potential benefit of the precision farming disappears due to the uncertainty of the application tasks.

This dissertation approaches the problem of uncertainty by applying geographical information quality evaluation and measurement methods to the evaluation of farm work execution. The overall accuracy was estimated to be 61 % in relation to optimal treatments in the studied cases. The machinery driving lines were overlapping by 10 % on average. Accurate steering assistance can cut that in half. The biggest difficulty is the optimization of the variable rate application levels. Different tasks conducted for the same purpose varied 22 % on average. The temporal accuracy was completely case dependent containing a response to the immediate rain forecasts or applicability of one month old satellite image. A single precision farming operation was estimated to benefit about 31 €/ha which was estimated to be only 23 % of the total precision farming benefit potential according to the variables in this work.

These numbers indicate the quality of spatial data inputs to farm machinery. This uncertainty is large in contrast to typical attempted precision farming adjustments and defined machinery performance requirements. These results suggest that there is a need for better uncertainty management, before different precision farming applications can truly be developed and evaluated.

The opponent is Dr. Michael Nørremark from Aarhus University, Denmark.

The custos is professor Kirsi Virrantaus from the Department of Built Environment, Aalto University.

Electronic dissertation: https://aaltodoc.aalto.fi/handle/123456789/49

Doctoral candidate’s contact information:
Jere Kaivosoja, Natural Resources Institute Finland (LUKE) 
Korkeakoulunkatu 7, 33720 Tampere
p. 029 532 6199
[email protected]

A doctoral dissertation is a public document and shall be available at Aalto University, School of Engineering’s notice board in Otakaari 4, Espoo at the latest 10 days prior to public defence.