Soil carbon sequestration is one of the most natural ways to implement negative carbon emission. Successful implementation of land based negative emission technologies requires continuous monitoring. This can be achieved by field based sensors, remote sensing, and/or smartphone apps and integration of models on cloud platforms to confirm management practice effectiveness. In this project, a cloud based platform will be developed that combines new developments in sensor based technologies with cloud based model simulations.
Capturing carbon in soil is a frequent feature of climate change mitigation measures, but the variability in soils and greenhouse gas emissions makes it difficult to evaluate results. A new £1 million research project led by James Hutton Institute scientists aims to tackle the problem, using digital technology to develop a UK system to understand and monitor changes in soil carbon from agricultural systems.
The project uses remote sensing, ground based sensors and high-performance computing to create a system to monitor, report and verify changes in soil carbon and GHG emissions in near real time, which is made available to users through a web interface and a mobile app.
Dr Jagadeesh Yeluripati, principal investigator of this project within the Institute’s Information and Computational Sciences department, explains: “There is a need to combine information from diverse sensor networks in different environments and to accurately model soil carbon changes and GHG emissions from various management practices.
“This project will demonstrate a novel solution for improved understanding of soil carbon change by linking sensors, edge and high-performance computing-based data analysis, modelling and visualisation to meet farmer and policymaker information needs, in support of net-zero GHG emissions targets for Scotland (2045) and the wider UK (2050).”
By streamlining the flow of information from sensors using newly evolved information and communication technology to models will be used to predict environmental changes. “The platform should provide unprecedented decision-making capabilities to farmers and national policy stakeholders”, said Professor Pete Smith, a project partner from the University of Aberdeen. “The design should allow near real time simulations of carbon changes and GHG emissions without individual land managers providing numerous data inputs”.
Further information and details, this and the wider webinar series is online at https://digitalenvironment.org/webinars/cde-webinar-series-upcoming/#RETINA .