Using RTK In Lieu of LIDAR for Developing Crop Stability Maps for Production Fields

In previous work we showed that topological maps of elevation, slope, curvature and aspect derived from high-density LIDAR imaging in combination with several years of crop yield monitor maps could be used to derive a statistically significant crop stability map for a commercial field. The methodology developed to show this result used ARCGIS software from ESRI, image analysis software IMAGINE from ERDAS, and cluster analysis and simple quadratic regression analysis in SAS. The final map developed in ARCGIS could be presented to the grower as a three color map indicating high, medium and low yielding areas of the field from which the grower could develop management plans to take advantage of this new information. While LIDAR maps are becoming more widely available for use with this methodology, this still remains a limitation to use of the methodology. Since Real Time Kinematic (RTK) maps contain elevation data, RTK maps could possibly be a substitute for LIDAR images; RTK equipment has become more widely used and maps generated offer centimeter accuracy. The hypothesis explored in this paper is that RTK elevation maps can be used in lieu of LIDAR maps to generate the topological information with sufficient density and accuracy to develop statistically significant crop yield stability maps for a commercial field. Results from this study show that RTK elevation data combined with several years of yield monitor data can be used to develop a statistically sound crop stability map which growers can use to further their management strategies.