2022 User Conference Highlights for the Agriculture Community

Lo-RuhamaWestbrook · ‎08-17-2022

It was a great pleasure at the 2022 User Conference to hear first-hand the about the exciting work being done to solve unique business challenges, and to exchange ideas, knowledge and common workflows within the community. There was much to see and do and it would have been impossible to do it all so we put together a highlighted summary of the activities specific to the Agriculture community.

For members of our communities who could not be present at the conference hopefully you were able to join us digitally for the plenary and some of the technical sessions. If you didn’t get a chance to watch the plenary, check out this section where Abigail Fitzgibbon shares her research to demonstrate what could happen to agriculture production because of climate change, using the raster analysis functions in ArcGIS Image for ArcGIS Online.

Special Achievement in GIS Award

Congratulations to Iowa Select Farms the winner of the Special Achievement in GIS (SAG) Award in Agriculture.

Iowa Select Farms completed a custom application called the Pumper Portal that leverages ArcGIS for approximately 100 or so contractors to apply the animal waste in an effective and environmentally responsible way. The app allows the applicator and the Iowa Select team to access data on recent soil analysis, which determines exactly how much fertilizer should be applied to specific sections of the field. The app is aware of topographical features that require special care to ensure that material does not wash into rivers or streams.

Other improvements have been made to improving team efficiency with redesigned workflows for mapping and creating regulatory map products using ArcGIS Pro, increased communication within the Nutrient Management team and management with the implementation of Operation Dashboards and eliminated the need for paper reports for site inspections with Survey123 surveys.

International Winners:
IGAD Regional Secretariat on Forced Displacement and Mixed Migration, Djibouti
Sime Darby Plantation Research Sdn Bhd, Malaysia
The Department of Agriculture, Environment, and Rural Affairs (DAERA), United Kingdom
SUL Secretariado Uruguayo de la Lana, Uruguay

Map Gallery Awards

Taking Root: An Analysis of Shifting Wheat Yield in Russia Due to Climate Change authored by Elizabeth Frieden from Tufts University – Second Place in Student Map (Post-secondary school)

User Presentations

Esri would like to thank all the presentations that freely shared their work and enthusiasm with the GIS community.

Trinchero Family Estates was represented by Douglass Wood on how democratizing access to the mapping and collection of geospatial viticultural data beyond internal departmental use improves communications, operational efficiency, crop estimation and regulatory requirements in GIS and Wine – An Integrated Approach to Geospatial Viticulture Data Management.
The County of Napa with Andre Napolitano and Louie Rowley focused on the Enhanced Protection of Napa Wine and Agriculture from the pests, specifically the Glassywinged Sharpshooter, by integrating Esri technology into their plant inspection workflows allowing a shift into an efficient, geo-referenced and timely response program.
USDA Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) is responsible for producing the most objective and accurate assessments of global agricultural production. FAS monitors multiple environmental datasets for critical crop conditions that affect food security around the world. In Monitoring Agriculture With Satellite Imagery and GIS, Lisa Colson discussed how regional analysts monitor near real-time agrometeorological data and satellite imagery with ArcGIS Pro and online applications, such as Crop Explorer and the Global Agricultural & Disaster Assessment System (GADAS).
Traveling all the way from Malaysia, Mohammad Zafrullah Salim from Sime Darby Plantation Research introduced us to SMART: Reimagining Plantations towards Agriculture 4.0. Spatial Data Management and Rapid Analytics (SMART) an interconnected web and mobile-based GIS platform that is being used to address critical business challenges and how the technology is facilitating better collaboration across the entire value chain of the palm oil production.

Agriculture Special Interest Group Meeting

Members of the Agriculture community across the federal, state and commercial spheres, including international, discussed the application of spatial technologies and their value regarding climate change and smart agriculture. Each panelists took the time to define what climate solutions meant to them, what their organization is doing about climate solutions and what we at Esri and the GIS community could do to help facilitate these solutions.

Panelists included
James Hipple, USDA
Sue Klingaman, Organic Valley
Nicholas Johansen, Iowa Select Farms
Christina Finlayson, Balance Agri-Nutrients
Lorenzo DeSimone, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Stay connected with the Esri Agriculture Community beyond the UC