PROJECT TITLE :

A Reference Process for Management Zones Delineation in Precision Agriculture

ABSTRACT:

Management zone delineation in precision agriculture requires many steps. As a result of of the diversity of tools for every step, the proper selection of ways and tools could be a complex task. In this context, the aim of this work is to propose a reference model process for management zone delineation in precision agriculture to describe the subprocesses, activities, flows and decisions needed for the right management zone delineation in an evident language by everybody involved in the process, which will be used as a guide for the method of management zone delineation. Business Method Model and Notation (BPMN) was used to formalize the reference model for management zone delineation, being an even graphical notation understandable by everyone involved in the process. The model is composed of the 5 subprocesses: knowledge assortment, information selection, data filtering, Clustering and maps analysis. In addition, the model presents activities, flows and gateways for every subprocess, presenting ideas, prerequisites, limitations of the applicable strategies for every activity and doable variations to the implementation of the activities, increasing the options available for management zone delineation. A case study was developed to demonstrate the applicability of the model proposed. The agricultural field used had totally different knowledge sampling grids, knowledge acquisition errors and sturdy correlation between pairs of attributes. The model was instrumental to beat those issues guiding the appliance of adequate techniques and strategies, resulting in a very set of management zone maps from which to decide on the foremost applicable for precision agriculture objectives. The BPMN used showed to be adequate to represent subprocesses, activities, flows and gateways of the process for management zone delineation.