Description:

New geospatial tools and a wealth of information resources are becoming available at less cost, resolution and quality, creating opportunities for crop and land managers for more effective decisions, reduce operating costs and improving services for producers. This course will help participants make the most out of these resources, and apply them in their everyday management tasks. Specifically, it will be oriented to support Conservation Planning activities, going through examples of how GIS is applied.

Who should attend:

This course is specifically designed for Technical Service Providers, Conservation Districts, and other NRCS Conservation Partners interested in working with  NRCS conservation plans and NRCS GIS resources such as the web soil survey and background imagery.

Goals

At the end of the course, Participants will be able to make the most out of these resources, applying them in a number of farm management operations, such as:

• Creating the farm layout, using imagery, topo maps, soil survey, and other available land resources.
  
• Learn about requirements and how to download land unit boundaries from the NRCS Conservation Planning database to GeoAgro GIS or other GIS used by the course participant
• Create and edit geographic data to accurately represent your farm information, and share with others.
• Create different types of Maps, following NRCS guidelines.
• Collecting data from the field with GPS, or planning field visits for directed sampling or scouting exact locations.
  
• Navigating maps in the field, with a GPS enabled smartphone or notebook, to review limiting factors or other site specific decisions.

1. Introduction – Setting up your own land/farm project

• Objectives/overview of the course
• GIS basics: What is a GIS? What is georeferenced information? 
• Why are geospatial technologies important for farm management? - GIS, GPS, Remote Sensing, Guided equipment, and other technologies.
• How is information projected in a map? / What type of data is used in a farm GIS?/ Standards used in GeoAgro GIS
• Create a Project, download data for your State, and locate your farm

2. Creating your land/farm layers 

• Importing field boundaries from the NRCS
• Digitizing farm information
• Adding Imagery
• Adding a web soil survey layer
• Adding other Land Resources Information to your project
• Working with layers
• Search, Explore, measure and query your maps 

3. Presenting your maps & sharing your farm information

• Using drawing tools to create your farm layout 
• Communicate with maps, using symbology and labels
• Creating commonly used maps – soils, topo, fields, etc. / Common Map Layouts used in NRCS Conservation Plans
• Printout your maps or export as images
• Export/import information in different formats.
• Exchange layers or entire projects in single files
• Share farm information using Google Earth

4. Collecting field data with GPS  devices

• Planning field visits
• Planning soil sampling - directed soil sampling and grid sampling
• Bringing GPS data from the field into the farm GIS
• Using smartphones, tablets or notebooks to navigate farm layers in the field

Participants can follow this online course from their desktop. Using various online resources (webinars, videos, tutorials, quizzes), they build skills working on sample farm/land data and exchanging information and experiences with facilitators and other participants.

The course is developed during 4 weeks, with an estimated dedication of 2 hours per week, for a total of 8 hours. During these 4 weeks, facilitators and participants will share:

• An Introductory 1 hour webinar, which will provide a course overview and how the online training works.
• Activities & Quizzes: the course will guide you through the learning process, through hands-on activities, and brief quizzes to summarize each topic, that participants can review in their own time.
• Online interaction: We'll use communication tools, such as email, and forums where participants and tutors can discuss topics, learn from others experiences or resolve issues.

What are the benefits of this methodology?

• Convenient access to instructor-led online training courses — no need to travel.
• Hands-on practice - Class time is divided between presentations and hands-on exercises. 
• Ability to ask questions, get answers,  participate in group activities and interact with the instructor and other participants through chats and forums.
• Downloadable course materials, exercise data, and a course certificate of completion.

 The course exercises will be developed using these  tools:

• GeoAgro GIS, a simple to use GIS specifically designed for farm and land management. Various features reviewed  are implemented during the course using this this tool, such as creating the farm layout, collecting data from the field using a GPS, navigating maps in the field, creating different layers of information, and other common mapping tasks - learn more ›
• Google Earth, a general web based GIS browser, is used as a tool to share farm/land information within your team and producer - learn more ›

GeoAgro GIS and Google Earth can work together to distribute information in a simple way.

Sample Farm data:

Course participants work on sample fields data, for a hands-on experience. The provided sample datasets include a variety of information, ranging from basic layers such as soils, topography and background imagery to processed remote sensing data.