LINKING A GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION-SYSTEM WITH A POTATO SIMULATION-MODEL FOR SITE-SPECIFIC CROP MANAGEMENT

Site-specific crop management (SSCM) requires that crop simulation models be applied to subareas of a field to test or develop management practices. When the number of subareas is sufficiently large, crop simulation models should be linked with a geographic information system (GIS) for ease of input data preparation and for output data analysis. An interface between PC ARC/IMPO (a GIS) and SIMPOTATO (a potato growth simulator) was developed to study potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) yield and N leaching distributions. The most important distributed input parameters were identified as the irrigated water/N, soil texture, and initial soil N. An example usage of the interface program is given to study the N leaching under different management scenarios.