ISO/DIS 7673-2

Agricultural field operations data — Part 2: Observations and measurements

Scope

This proposal is the third of three separate, but linked, proposals. The deliverable consists of documentation that defines the processes and models for data exchange in agricultural irrigation. The scope of the set of three proposals is based on two major irrigation data processes:

1. Observations: The field, atmospheric, plant, or other in situ measurements that apply to irrigation management. This includes weather stations, soil moisture sensors, or crop-related sensing. This work is an agricultural implementation of the ISO 19156 standard for observations and measurements (ISO, 2011).
2. Operations: All of the activities associated with the application of water with an irrigation system. This includes, but is not restricted to, management-level communications and record-keeping. The operations data set is based around a Recommendation, which describes a suggested course of action; a Work Order, which describes a desired course of action; and a Work Record, which describes what actually happened. This work is based on, and extends, the ISO11783-10 standard for communications between agricultural machinery and a Farm Management Information System (ISO, 2015).

The purpose of this particular part of the proposed standard is to present an object model and reference XML serialization schema to represent the specification and reporting of irrigation water and product applications in an irrigation system. The scope includes planning and preparation phases (represented by documents called Recommendation and Work Order) as well as the recording of as-applied water and products (known as a Work Record). The scope of this document does not, however, include representing the Observations and Measurements that drive tactical decision-making in irrigation (and the creation of Recommendations and Work Orders); that material, corresponding to an irrigation-specific implementation of the ISO 19156 standard, is covered in Part 2 of the proposed standard. This standard should enable a developer to unambiguously represent the data being communicated in various parts of the farmer's business process associated with irrigation field operations in terms of a set of classes based on the ISO 11783 standard.
The proposed standard is meant to support the exchange of data. The classes, data formats, and structures are not meant to indirectly specify internal structure or the object model of a Farm Management Information System (FMIS) or similar system.

The proposed standard will not specify any type of “summary” report. This is intentional. The information contained in a collection of standard-compliant documents will be sufficient to create a summary of irrigation applications. Actual summarization of irrigation requires aggregation, and the method or scope of aggregation is often derived from specific reporting requirements. The proposed standard will be neutral with regard to reporting requirements because these requirements are typically derived from a regional, basin, or administrative unit scale and are, therefore, out of scope.