Key challenges and methods in identifying management zones

Spyros Fountas, Evangelos Anastasiou and Zisis Tsiropoulos, Agricultural University of Athens, Greece; Aristotelis Tagarakis, BioSense Institute - Research Institute for Information Technologies in Biosystems, Serbia; and Athanasios Balafoutis, Centre for Research and Technology Hellas, Institute of Bioeconomy & Agro-technology, Greece

Chapter synopsis: Management zones (MZs) are delineated to identify homogenous regions with similar field characteristics and to differentiate the inputs according to the specific needs of the crops within each zone. Delineation of MZs can be based on soil and landscape attributes and/or plant parameters. There are several methods to delineate MZs. These include (1) empirical methods, where field maps are visually interpreted by the farmers according to personal knowledge; (2) geostatistical methods using statistical integration of georeferenced observations of different variables; (3) clustering techniques classifying data in different combinations of many variables in discrete classes or clusters, degree of agreement using a selection of the best-suited parameters for final MZ delineation and others. In this chapter, the most common methods for delineation of MZs are discussed and three case studies are presented. The case studies are analysed to show the importance of the formation of MZs for the optimization of input application.

DOI: 10.19103/AS.2017.0032.05