A new interactive OneSoil Map has been launched that provides all information about all fields in Europe and the USA. The map is an innovative new approach in AgriTech and uses high-resolution satellite imagery and Machine Learning algorithms. The map has been created by a Belarus-based ag-tech startup called OneSoil. The developers trained an algorithm to allocate field boundaries automatically and trained another algorithm to determine a crop that grows on a field.
How the map works?
There is exhaustive information on 60 million fields and 27 different types of crops in 44 countries throughout Europe and the USA. With the help of this map, we can easily explore national and regional trends and analyze the development of a particular field.
The map also gives a fair idea regarding a field: its size, culture, plant development and the field score. At any particular instance of time, one can see what is the status of his wheat cultivation or that of his neighbors’ field. The map makes use of NDVI index, climate indicators, and relative field productivity.
For Instance, one can very easily determine the land cultivated with corn in the USA or the region in Europe with the highest number of fields producing wheat. The OneSoil map uses images captured by Sentinel-2 satellite. For creating the interactive map, the clouds and background shadow was cleansed and data was compressed. In the map, agronomic indicators are displayed as well as one can visualize the development of crops over the season.
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For better visualization of data on the map, Mapbox was used. Developer Dmitry Kabak of the OneSoil team said, “There are two approaches to creating a map; we tried both. The first is to create a raster map. “In this case, we divide the map into squares, which we then render into pictures and store on the server. The browser loads several images and moves them when the user explores the map,”
The benefit of using Mapbox GL Library is that it is an open source tool for maps which offers paid data storage. This helps users in uploading data on the servers and then the information would be distributed by Mapbox. This ensures accuracy in mapping.
Benefits of OneSoil
OneSoil has an expertise in mapping fields and its data sets are unique. OneSoil is the pioneer in mapping fields and its data sets are unique. Its data is also more reliable because it uses Machine Learning which is way more accurate than manually compiled data.
As we can see, on the top right corner there is a button called “random beautiful fields” using which we can view very beautiful and artistic images of fields in over 35 countries.
Recognizing crops isn’t always simple and there isn’t precision always, so there is a feature in OneSoil Map that allows the users to give feedbacks and improvise the algorithms. There is a button that has been specially added for notifications regarding misleading or wrong recognition. The information that is collected is further used for improving crop recognition models.
OneSoil will boost precision farming. As the world’s population increases rapidly and the area under cultivation shrinks, farming really needs to be enhanced. OneSoil enables farmers to better optimize their resources and learn about farm yields.
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