The Universitat participates on the Ermes European project, which objective is to develop an observation model of the Earth based on data obtained via satellite of rice fields of the Mediterranean basin. Among the technological tools which will be built, an application for mobile devices with which the agriculture management stands out will improve in real time. The initiative, sponsored by the Seventh Research Programme of the European Union Framework, have a budget of 3.5 million euros.
The annual meeting of researchers who participate in Ermes -which has now been on the trajectory for three years- is welcomed today and tomorrow at the Rector Peset Residence Hall of Universitat de València. These days intend to, among others, “have the preliminary results of the study in common and to present the initiative to the potential users of this innovative tool with the ability to generate economic profits in agriculture, as for this investigation will imply a leap forward without precedents in the observation of the Earth’s surface”, claims professor Javier García Haro, from the Department of Earth Physics and Thermodynamics, main Ermes researcher at Universitat de València.
The Ermes committee project (“an Earth Observation Model based Rice Information Service”) involves several members with experience, both in observation via satellite, as in agronomic models, and is coordinated by the Italian Institute “Instituto per il Rilevamento Elettromagnetico dell’ Ambiente del Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR-IREA)”. Furthermore, Universitat de València, Universitat Jaume I, University of Milan, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Istituto di Metodologie per l'Analisi Ambientale, Cereal Institute –Hellenic Agricultural Organization “Demeter”– and Sarmap, the private enterprise of Switzerland will also participate.
Remote sensing and meteorology
María Amparo Gilabert, professor of “Environmental Remote Sensing Group” from the Department of Earth Physics and Thermodynamics, points out that Universitat de València will be in charge of Ermes “in every aspect related to remote sensing, including the part of weather data”. Gilabert explains that the European project requires the availability of several parameters, as for example, agronomic ones (variety of rice, date of sowing, phenology), biophysics (rate of leaf area, element of photosynthetic radiation) and agrometeorologics (moisture, temperature, precipitation, solar radiation).
The principal of the technique area of the European Projects Office of Universitat de València, Àngels Sanchis, says that the participation of the academic institution for this project “shows one more example of the multidisciplinary collaboration to obtain the results and to create very useful products for different audiences and actors with different goals”.
Economic and environmental sustainability
Likewise, Ermes coordinator, the Italian researcher Mirco Boschetti, reminds us that the web of the European project is on, so that “both farming people and local and regional authorities, entrepreneurs and citizens in general can follow the progress of our research, as for one of our priorities of this initiative is to provide innovative solutions for different users and to promote criteria of economic and environmental sustainability in the agricultural production”.
Last update: 26 de march de 2015 14:04.
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