NSF Convergence Accelerator Track J: Building a digital twin for national-scale field-level crop monitoring, prediction, and decision support

NSF 融合加速器轨道 J：为国家规模的田间作物监测、预测和决策支持构建数字孪生

• 批准号: 2236137
• 负责人: Liping Di
• 金额: $ 75万
• 依托单位: George Mason University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-12-15 至 2023-11-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2236137&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NSF; Convergence; Accelerator; Track; Building

Crop production in the U.S. feeds not only the U.S. but also the world. During the 2020/2021 fiscal year, U.S. exports accounted for over 25% of total grain traded globally. A healthy crop cropping systems (CCS) is vital for achieving food and nutrient security of the U.S. and the world and enhancing the competitiveness of U.S. agriculture in the world market. Yet, crop production creates large environmental footprint. The USDA Agricultural Innovation Agenda calls for increasing U.S. agricultural production by 40% while cutting its environmental footprint in half by 2050. Sound crop management decision-making is a key in reaching this ambitious goal. Traditionally, crop management decisions are made by individuals based on their empirical judgment, which is often subjective and far from optimal. On the other hand, the science-based, data-driven approach for crop management decision-making relies on timely and accurate information on current and predicted future conditions of crop, soil, weather, and market to make optimal decisions. Studies demonstrated that the data-driven approach can overcome the inherent deficiencies in the empirical approach and bring significant economic and environmental benefits. However, it remains a challenge for stakeholders to utilize the data-driven approach because they don’t have full and effective access to the timely and accurate information and lack facilities or knowledge to process the information. This project will provide such timely information and decision support to stakeholders for enabling the data-driven optimal decision-making nationwide at field scales by developing the CropSmart Digital Twin (CSDT). CSDT will not only accurately represents the current conditions, but also predict, with acceptable confidence levels, future conditions of CCS with hypothetical “what if” scenarios, resulting in actionable predictions. The project will provide significant help in reaching the USDA Innovation goal and greatly enhance food and nutrition security of the U.S. and the world. Crop production is the foundation for food and nutrition security in the U.S. and the world. However, it also creates large environmental footprint. The USDA Agricultural Innovation Agenda calls for increasing U.S. agricultural production by 40% while cutting its environmental footprint in half by 2050. The data-driven approach for crop management decision-making, which relies on timely and accurate information on current and predicted future conditions of crop, soil, weather, and market to make optimal management decisions, has demonstrated its great potential to help USDA reach its ambitious goal. However, it remains a challenge for stakeholders to adopt the approach because they don’t have effective access to the decision-ready information (DRI) and lack facilities or knowledge to process the information. This project proposes to build the CropSmart Digital Twin (CSDT) with innovative Earth system DT technologies to facilitate the data-driven approach. The overarching goal is to ensure food and nutrition security by enhancing crop productivity and reducing environmental footprint in the U.S. through wide adoption of the data-driven approach enabled by CSDT. The major project activities include: (1) understanding stakeholders’ requirements on DRI and decision support; (2) identifying existing data, technologies, and gaps for CSDT; (3) quickly prototyping CSDT by integrating existing technologies and developing gap-filling technologies; 4) broadening participation and impact by training agricultural workforce through comprehensive extension; and (5) establishing a community-based CSDT network for long-term sustainability. This project explores the convergent approach for quickly constructing an operational DT through integration of multi-disciplinary components and services with interoperability technology. It demonstrates the advantage of multi-disciplinary collaboration and feasibility, usability, and value of DT as a multi-disciplinary integration platform for enabling the data-driven approach. The project will help USDA reach its Innovation Agenda goal and enhance food and nutrition security of the U.S. and the world.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

美国的农作物生产不仅养活了美国，也养活了世界。在2020/2021财政年度，美国出口占全球粮食贸易总额的25%以上。健康的作物种植制度（CCS）对于实现美国和世界的粮食和营养安全以及增强美国农业在世界市场上的竞争力至关重要。然而，农作物生产造成了巨大的环境足迹。美国农业部的农业创新议程要求到2050年将美国农业产量增加40%，同时将其环境足迹减少一半。合理的作物管理决策是实现这一宏伟目标的关键。传统上，作物管理决策是由个人根据他们的经验判断，这往往是主观的，远远不是最佳的。另一方面，基于科学的数据驱动的作物管理决策方法依赖于及时准确的作物、土壤、天气和市场当前和预测未来状况的信息，以做出最佳决策。研究表明，数据驱动的方法可以克服经验方法的固有缺陷，带来显著的经济和环境效益。然而，利益攸关方利用数据驱动的方法仍然是一个挑战，因为他们无法充分有效地获得及时准确的信息，缺乏处理信息的设施或知识。该项目将通过开发CropSmart Digital Twin（CSDT），为利益攸关方提供及时的信息和决策支持，以便在全国范围内实现数据驱动的最佳决策。CSDT不仅将准确地表示当前状况，而且还将以可接受的置信水平预测CCS的未来状况，并假设“如果”情景，从而产生可操作的预测。该项目将为实现美国农业部的创新目标提供重要帮助，并大大提高美国和世界的粮食和营养安全。作物生产是美国和世界粮食和营养安全的基础。但是，它也产生了巨大的环境足迹。美国农业部的农业创新议程要求到2050年将美国农业产量增加40%，同时将其环境足迹减少一半。数据驱动的作物管理决策方法依赖于作物、土壤、天气和市场当前和预测未来状况的及时准确信息，以做出最佳管理决策，已证明其在帮助美国农业部实现其雄心勃勃的目标方面具有巨大潜力。然而，它仍然是一个挑战，利益相关者采用的方法，因为他们没有有效的访问决策准备信息（DRI），缺乏设施或知识来处理信息。该项目建议利用创新的地球系统数字终端技术建立作物智能数字孪生系统，以促进数据驱动的方法。总体目标是通过广泛采用CSDT支持的数据驱动方法，提高作物生产力并减少美国的环境足迹，从而确保粮食和营养安全。主要项目活动包括：（1）了解利益相关者对DRI和决策支持的需求;（2）确定CSDT的现有数据、技术和差距;（3）通过整合现有技术和开发填补差距的技术，快速建立CSDT原型;（4）通过全面推广培训农业劳动力，扩大参与和影响;（5）建立以社区为基础的CSDT网络，以实现长期可持续发展。该项目探讨了通过集成多学科组件和服务以及互操作性技术来快速构建可操作DT的聚合方法。它展示了多学科协作的优势以及DT作为支持数据驱动方法的多学科集成平台的可行性、可用性和价值。该项目将帮助美国农业部实现其创新议程目标，并提高美国和世界的粮食和营养安全。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

项目成果

Automated In-Season Crop-Type Data Layer Mapping Without Ground Truth for the Conterminous United States Based on Multisource Satellite Imagery

• DOI: 10.1109/tgrs.2024.3361895
• 发表时间: 2024
• 期刊: IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing
• 影响因子: 8.2
• 作者: Hui Li;Liping Di;Chen Zhang;Li Lin;Liying Guo;E. Yu;Zhengwei Yang

Cyberinformatics tool for in-season crop-specific land cover monitoring: Design, implementation, and applications of iCrop

• DOI: 10.1016/j.compag.2023.108199
• 发表时间: 2023-10
• 期刊: Comput. Electron. Agric.
• 作者: Chen Zhang;Liping Di;Li Lin;Haoteng Zhao;Hui Li;Anna Yang;Liying Guo;Zhengwei Yang

Hyperspectral Image Classification of Agricultural Tillage Practices Using Spatial-aware Collaborative Representation

• DOI: 10.1109/agro-geoinformatics59224.2023.10233552
• 发表时间: 2023-07
• 期刊: 2023 11th International Conference on Agro-Geoinformatics (Agro-Geoinformatics)
• 作者: Chiranjibi Shah;Q. Du