Italian field activities 2015
The 2015 Italian field data were collected from the very beginning of the rice season to the flowering period of rice, from May until the first days of August. The 19 monitored fields belong to tree Lomellina farmers (see the map below).
Sample of ERMES fields within the Italian study area (Lomellina)
The data were largely collected using smart applications, in particular it was used PocketLAI App, developed by UMIL, to sample data of Leaf Area Index (LAI) and Space4Agri App, developed by CNR-IREA, to collect information of rice phenology.
The LAI data and phenology info were sent out to UVEG as ground truth to validate and evaluate the LAI maps produced from satellite imagery.
Moreover, it was conducted a field campaign, during July 2015, were leaf nitrogen data were sampled with Dualex instrument and another smart application called PocketN. These data allow the Italian staff to set a flowchart to support the top dressing fertilizations that will be applied during the 2016 rice season.
Overall the field data were collected considering these parameters and making use of these instruments:
Leaf area index
- Collected using the smartphone app called PocketLAI developed by CASSANDRA group from UMIL university.
Phenology and crop development
- The phenological info were collected on field according to the BBCH scale using the Space4Agri Application.
Agro-practices
- flooding practices on rice fields were recorded by italian researchers.