Projects
Improving crop production by field management strategies using crop water productivity modeling: Case study of tef (Eragrostis tef (Zucc.) Trotter) production in Tigray, Ethiopia. KU Leuven
Increasing food production to feed the fast growing world population particularly in developing countries relies on two options: either increase the arable land or improve the productivity of the existing cultivated land. This research focuses on the highly populated highlands ofTigray (northern Ethiopia), where improving the productivity of land isthe only option for sustainable food production. In the drought-prone and highly ...
Human environment interactions in the past Modeling ancient crop yields in a Mediterranean environment KU Leuven
Throughout history, there have been periods when humans and the environment had a strong interplay in which both greatly impacted the other. The onset of agriculture marked a drastic change in the way humans lived together which resulted in changes in the bio, geo, hydro - and atmosphere . For the Mediterranean region it was hypothesized that soil erosion following the cultivation of land degraded the landscape to such an extent that it ...
Innovative Use of Earth Observation and Land Surface Modeling for Tracking the Effects of Irrigation on the Terrestrial Water Cycle KU Leuven
In recent years, human water needs have been steadily increasing and they are currently dominated by agricultural activities for food production worldwide. Furthermore, the increase in population and climatic change are expected to raise the current demand of water highlighting the necessity for more efficient irrigation systems. In this context, the combined effect of human pressure (i.e. irrigation) and the increase of extreme natural ...
Assimilation of microwave backscatter data into a regional crop model: estimating soil moisture and biomass over European croplands KU Leuven
Crop production has experienced exponential growths over the past centuries due to scientific innovations and mechanical automation. The more recent developments in technology, related to big data and remote sensing, have led to a growing interest of upscaling process-based crop models, which typically calculate crop production for a field under homogeneous soil, crop and management conditions. By using these models to simulate over multiple ...
Digital mapping of soil hydraulic properties for crop growth modelling in the Zambezi River Basin KU Leuven
In a context where water availability is declining and competition for water is increasing, it is imperative to produce more crop per drop. To this end, rainfed and irrigated crop production systems must be designed which are adapted to the local soil, climate and socio-economic conditions. Integrated and well parameterized crop growth models are key to designing such crop production systems. Whereas today in most crop growth and hydrological ...
Agrivoltaics: optimizing the synergy of crop production and solar panels KU Leuven
Agrivoltaic production systems are characterized by the combination of conventional agriculture and
the production of photovoltaic energy on a single site. To ensure optimal and sustainable land use,
both an economically viable crop yield and optimal energy production are required. In this project, we
seek to minimize crop yield losses by only partially shading the plants and dynamically adjusting
shading patterns to steer ...
Towards resilient crop production in changing climates: a system approach for understanding carbon-nitrogen interactions at elevated atmospheric CO2 concentrations KU Leuven
Interactions between carbon (C) and nitrogen (N), two of plants' most important building blocks, have been frequently investigated in crops and soils. In this research they receive renewed attention in the context of climate change. The observed and expected further rise of CO2 concentrations in the air mean more C availability for crops to create biomass. At the same time, the higher CO2 concentrations in the air also cause the pores of the ...
Climate impacts on crop losses: Using satellite data to foster food security KU Leuven
Humanity faces significant challenges regarding global food insecurity, and climate extremes aggravates this risk through their impact on crop failure. Understanding the climatic drivers of crop failure, monitoring crop growth, and implementing early warning systems is therefore of crucial importance. Earth observation, crop models, and Earth system models are commonly used for this purpose. However, global-scale modeling systems are unable ...
Towards Setting up a Centre of Site-specific Technology for Soil and Crop Management (SiTeMan) Ghent University
Global food production in the context of increasing human population and changing climate is one of the World’s greatest challenges. This calls for improved agricultural practises, of which precision agriculture is considered to be an answer. Within field variability of soil and crop growing conditions is present in most agriculture fields, which hinders crop production and necessitates an integrated approach to manage this variability. We ...