As part of a new collaborative research project in which Wageningen University, Agroportal, the cooperative NFW, National Service for the Implementation of Regulations and the University of Melbourne participate studies are underway to develop a greater understanding of how usability can be improved for spatial information products. The project is co-financed by the Dutch program “Space for Geo-Information (http://www.rgi.nl).
The project aims to elaborate methods for determining the geo-information requirement in the area of tension between different groups of decision makers, who act within the constraints of existing legislation. These methods are needed to help answer the question: “Which demands do current and future social issues make on the NGII and what knowledge impulse is needed to bridge the gap between supply and demand of geo-information?”*
In an agri-environmental setting situated in the province of Friesland, the central research question is: “Which geo-information linked to environmental processes is needed, both to facilitate local decision making by farmers, and to provide indicators for agro-environmental policy aiming at environmental and biodiversity goals at regional level”? To answer this question, we study the required accuracy of geographic data and the possibilities/desirability of:
- multiple application of existing data (among which core spatial data sets of the NGII);
- single data entry for multiple purposes, so as to minimize the administrative burden;
- data acquisition, e.g. by remote sensing and the 3MG measurement system (= mobile regional environmental monitor);
- data exchange at aggregate level in case of regional goals (e.g. landscape restoration, surface water quality).
Our premise is that on the one hand information affects the farmers’ decisions and, hence, fertilizer application and other cultivation measures, which eventually will have an impact on the environment. On the other, the Government and public services acquire information from farmers and monitoring networks to implement policy and monitor the achievement of environmental goals. The project thus concerns the flows of geo-information and more particularly, methods to assess the optimal flow of geo-information.
* Space for Geo-information – Bsik knowledge project proposal, February 12, 2003, p. 11.