The PredICTor project has two main deliverables, i) an online decision support tool for evaluating an intended field traffic situation for a given soil condition and with given machinery (for farmers and agricultural advisers), and ii) an online tool for creating European-wide maps of the wheel load carrying capacity, which is defined as the maximum wheel load the soil can carry at given soil moisture conditions and for a given tyre and tyre inflation pressure (for authorities / soil protection offices). For both of these ICT applications, we update state-of-the-art models for the soil compaction process and combine them with national and European databases on soil properties and (at national level) meteorological data.
The background for the proposal is the recognition that the quality of many European soils is threathened due to traffic with modern agricultural machinery that has been ever-increasing in size and mass for decades. Soil has a mechanical strength that is dependent on soil type and soil water content. Soil compaction occurs if soil stress imposed by machinery exceeds soil strength. Extensive research has shown that compaction of soil in depths below the annually tilled layer is persistent over many decades. Soil compaction affects several soil functions, including environmental footprints and crop production. The EU has launched a proposal for a Soil Framework Directive for soil protection, including soil compaction as a major threat to a sustained soil quality.
Soil machinery producers are showing increased interest in ICT solutions allowing for optimization of field operations like soil tillage and traffic. The PredICTor project outcome is seen as a precondition and a first step towards internet-compatible control terminal systems for ‘on-site’ decisions on traffic in order to avoid compaction.
The project includes four workpackages addressing i) improvement and combination of state-of-the-art models for the soil compaction process with pedotransfer functions for estimating soil strength and stress propagation patterns in the soil, ii) preparation of data on soil properties and meteorogical observations for direct access by the models, iii) programming of the decision support tool in an internet environment, emphasizing end-user needs (e.g. icon-based selection of machinery), and iv) online display of European-wide maps of the wheel load carrying capacity for user-selected combinations of soil water regime, tyre type and tyre inflation pressure.
The work in the PredICTor project consortium will be based on two national running projects in Switzerland and Denmark that are cooperating on a version of the online decision support tool based on manual input of data. The high ‘value-for-money’ of the PredICTor project – providing the main deliverables mentioned above, while applying for a total of only ~375.000 Euro – is due to this preparatory work. This also means that the risk of project failure is low. The PredICTor project consortium includes a total of 7 partners applying for funding (3 from Denmark, 2 from Switzerland and 2 from Finland). In addition, two Institutes – one from Germany and one from the Netherlands – will be associated to the project as consultants on their own funding.
The project results will be made available to the public. Both online tools may be used by any public authority or citizen with access to the internet worldwide. The results will be presented at
international, scientific conferences and in peer-reviewed papers in international journals. Popular-science communications will be produced for helping the end-user in using the tools.
