TITLE:
Land Use/Cover and Productivity in the Compact Agricultural Areas of Mexico
AUTHORS:
Jesús Soria-Ruiz, Yolanda Fernandez-Ordoñez, Guillermo Medina-Garcia, Gabriel Diaz-Padilla
KEYWORDS:
Land Use/Cover, Productivity, SPOT Images, Agrotech Observatories, Mexico
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Environmental Protection,
Vol.5 No.16,
November
26,
2014
ABSTRACT: This
paper presents a method to associate land use/cover with productivity in 16
Agrotech Observatories (AOTs) in Mexico. Compact agricultural areas in Mexico
have been identified, which are monitored as to their behavior concerning
production and rural productivity in a network of AOTs, which is a compact
agricultural area representative of agro-ecological, technological and social
conditions in the country. To optimize production and agricultural productivity
in compact areas, a multidisciplinary and holistic approach with four lines of
activity (agro-ecological, technological, economic, and social), and ten
actions are used. The objective of this work was to obtain the land use/cover
and productivity of sixteen compact agricultural areas (AOTs) in the Mexican
Republic, using panchromatic and multispectral SPOT 5 imagery, in order to
provide information to the agricultural sector of the country, and to support
decision making contributing to the optimization of production in areas with
high actual and potential productivity. As an example, in this paper the land
use/cover and productivity “AOT 20 Hidalgo” were described. Currently, it is
important to have updated and accurate information to support actions and
programs of federal, state and local government for farmers, particularly in
compact areas with high agricultural production potential.