Monitoring agricultural activities by using remote sensing

On 14^th of December IES's leading researcher Dr. Phys. Dainis Jakovels spoke about remote sensing data use for the monitoring of agricultural activities – how and if they can be used for the supervision of the National direct payments and the EU support to farmers. The lecture was a part of the seminar “Biologically valuable grasslands = Protected grassland habitats? The management of biologically valuable grasslands today and in the future” organised by the Latvian Fund for Nature.

Remote sensing data such as aerial photos, optical satellite data, radar data can be used for the monitoring of grassland mowing and plowing, identification of the agricultural management types, as well as to identify if the real time agriculture crops are the same as it was marked for the Rural Support Service. The aerial photos in the presentation were acquired by using the Airborne Surveillance and Environmental Monitoring System ARSENAL.