Recent advances in precision (target) conservation

Excerpt

Achieving food security and sustainability in the 21st century is expected to become increasingly challenging due to greater soil degradation resulting from climate change, population growth, and depletion of water resources (Delgado et al. 2011). New scientific research is critical for developing innovative soil and water conservation practices and programs that will maintain or even increase agricultural productivity. This special issue about recent advances in landscape-targeting precision conservation presents studies that investigate the impacts of precision conservation management on agricultural systems and the environment.

Technological advances in computer hardware and software, engineering, communications, and other fields have allowed crop and soil management to be integrated with geographic information systems (GIS), global positioning systems (GPS), computer modeling, and remote sensing, allowing better management. The last decade has seen the integration of these tools into precision conservation systems (Berry et al. 2003, 2005; Delgado and Berry 2008; Tomer 2010; Walter et al. 2007). Precision conservation (also called target conservation) has the potential not only to increase the sustainability of agricultural systems, but also to aid in mitigating and adapting to climate change and optimizing biofuel systems to minimize their environmental impacts (Delgado et al. 2011).