Cold-Weather Crop Suitability Modelling

This article presents ArcGIS Pro workflow results aimed at rating and mapping cold-weather crop suitability from 0% to 100% at 1-m elevation resolution for the Province of New Brunswick (NB). This rating accounts for variations by soil conditions (texture, coarse fragments, depth, calcareousness, drainage, slope), growing degree days (GDD) and frost-free days (FFD) from within fields to across regions. The ratings so produced reflect a significant part of farm and farm/woodlot property assessment values as these also vary by area and building footprint. While the soil properties for texture, coarse fragments, depth, and calcareousness vary by NB soil association mapping units, within-field suitabilities also vary by slope from flat to steep and by drainage as it correlates across the terrain by depth-to-water (DTW) from very poor to poor, imperfect, moderate, well and excessive. Areas marked by 1.5 10% have low to no suitability because of slope-increased soil erosion and trafficability risks. The number of growing-degree and frost-free days across NB were rated to be sufficient for cold weather cropping, except marginally so at the high-elevation locations.

Influence of different land-use types on selected soil properties related to soil fertility in A Luoi District,Thua Thien Hue,Vietnam

Land use type affects the physicochemical properties of soil.The value of OM and TN is high in acacia soils.Strong acidity of soil is considered a serious constraint for agriculture.Suitable cash crops are acacia,cassava,banana,rice and maize.Soil fertility is affected by land-use types and land management,which exacerbates soil erosion and various other forms of soil degradation in the mountainous regions of Viet-nam.This study was conducted in A Luoi District,Thua Thien Hue,Vietnam to identify the effects of land-use types on specific soil physicochemical characteristics related to soil fertility.Soil physicochemical properties,such as organic matter(OM),total nitrogen(TN),total phosphorous(TP),and K+were significantly affected by land-use type.The results showed that the soils were sandy in rice but clay loam for acacia and cassava.The mean bulk density value of acacia soil was significantly greater than that of other soils.TN were higher in the acacia soils than those in the rice,maize,and banana soils.The OM content was significantly higher in the acacia,cassava,and banana soils than those in the rice and maize soils.The mean of exchangeable K+in the rice soil was higher compared to those in other soils and was affected by land-use type.The high exchangeable acidity content in the soils was probably due to intensive precipitation.However,both land use type and management did not affect the CEC value.Overall,the inappropriate land use caused the disturbance of soil physicochemical properties,indicating that the conditions of rice and maize soils are becoming worse than acacia soils.Therefore,lowering the intensity of cultivation,adopting incorporated soil fertility management,and applying organic fertilizer should preserve the existing conditions and enhance soil properties.