Tracking Climate Effects
Customer: Institute of Bio- and Geosciences – Agrosphere, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH
Sector: Environmental simulation research
Requirements: Quality Management of geo-research data, integration with the new TERENO database
Implementation: Optimization and further development of DIAdem scripts, database integration
Reliable Environmental Data Through Consistent Quality Management
Initial Situation: Collecting Geodata
Plant chamber AgraSim
© FZ Jülich/Ralf-Uwe LimbachClimate change requires forward-looking strategies for agriculture. In the TERENO-SOILCan field project, Forschungszentrum Jülich is investigating how changes in temperature and precipitation affect soils. In addition, the researchers use the unique AgraSim research platform to simulate environmental conditions, including CO2 concentrations. Experiments and simulations are based on long-term data from the TERENO (TERrestrial ENvironmental Observatories) network, and the results are fed back into the database.
Project Task: Quality Management and a new Database
Large lysimeters filled with intact arable soil are used for environmental monitoring and experiments. Each lysimeter contains numerous sensors that continuously record a wide variety of parameters. Before being published in the TERENO database, all measurement data is checked and tagged with quality metadata. The software used for this purpose should be optimized and seamlessly integrated with the new, modernized TERENO database.
Solution: An efficient Overall Concept
measX developed a practical user interface in DIAdem that allows the concept for quality assessment and flagging of recorded data—originally developed in TERENO—to be applied to lysimeter measurement data. To achieve this, existing DIAdem scripts were optimized, dialog boxes were revised, new functions were added, and the software was upgraded to the current version of DIAdem. In addition, measX integrated the system with the modernized TERENO database. The new framework application controls the workflow from data loading through automated or manual flagging all the way to export.
Field Success: Quality-Checked Environmental Data
SOILCan and AgraSim now feature a state-of-the-art quality management system for lysimeter data and are optimally prepared for future tasks.
Field measurements, experiments, and simulations generate a unique dataset that enables a better understanding of the impacts of climate change on soil and plants and helps develop strategies for resilient agriculture. Since the validity of the results depends largely on data quality, the quality management system plays a crucial role in laying the groundwork for this.
Want to learn more? Read the full case study.
Introductory image: © FZ Jülich/Sascha Kreklau