ABSTRACT
The use of GIS and GPS in agriculture has increasingly moved from research to practical application. For example, in the Hoeksche Waard in The Netherlands, farmers are ready to invest in real-time kinematic (cm-accuracy) GPS technology (RTKGPS) and peripheral devices to support optimal allocation of field margins, vehicle path planning, variable rate application, and other agricultural operations. A few years ago, the equipment required for these operations was very expensive and often required extensive customization of machinery (Keicher and Seufert, 2000). Nowadays, standard solutions are becoming available and costs are decreasing ( Hekkert, 2006), thus improving the feasibility of GPS-assisted farming (Nijland, 2006). In addition to these applications, GPS is used to validate the agricultural subsidies
10.1 Introduction ................................................................................................. 117 10.2 Methods ....................................................................................................... 118
10.2.1 Error Models ................................................................................... 118 10.2.1.1 EGNOS ............................................................................ 120 10.2.1.2 RTK-GPS ......................................................................... 120 10.2.1.3 Topographic Map ............................................................. 121
10.2.2 Simulation of Measured Field Boundaries ..................................... 121 10.2.3 Effects on Field Operations ............................................................ 122
10.3 Results and Discussion ................................................................................ 123 10.3.1 Error Model .................................................................................... 123
10.3.2 Simulation with DUE ..................................................................... 126 10.3.3 Effects on Field Operations ............................................................ 126
10.4 Conclusions ................................................................................................. 129 Acknowledgments .................................................................................................. 129 References .............................................................................................................. 129
claimed by farmers who, based on topographic field boundaries, apply for money under the European Union Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). For this purpose, less accurate hand-held receivers are being used (Bogaert et al., 2005).
