Tools

The Duch Open Bodem Index shows the soil quality of agricultural parcels through one overall soil index. This index is composed of 5 different aspects: chemical (e.g. pH, nutrient availability, physical (e.g. compaction, drainage), biology (e.g. microbiological activity), environment (e.g. nitrogen leaching) and management (e.g. use of catch crops, soil tillage).

In many parts of the world farmer’s yields are well below what is possible. The difference between farmers yields and the potential is called the yield gap. The Global Yield Gap Atlas (GYGA) provides insight in the magnitude of this gap for different crops across the world. It takes into account regions where crops are mainly dependent on rainfall as well as areas where irrigation is applied. Besides, the atlas provides the required nutrient input to close the yield gap to different levels like 50% or 80%.   

Global historical and near real-time weather information, such as basic hourly ERA5, is provided by the European Copernicus programme. AgERA5 makes the ERA5 data available to users in the agricultural domain. It includes agro-meteorological variables such as daily mean, minimum and maximum temperature, precipitation, humidity and incoming solar radiation. All land areas are covered at a spatial resolution of 10 by 10 km from 1979 until now.

LARCH is an ecological model to assess the sustainability of ecological networks for species. Well-functioning ecological habitat networks are the basis for the conservation of protected (plants and/or animals) species. Suitability for local populations  is determined using species-specific area requirements. LARCH calculates a measure for spatial cohesion that is used to estimate the sustainability of ecological networks  and to evaluate the connections between scattered  habitat areas. Implementation of barrier effects (e.g.