CERES-Maize: Case Study to Choose Reasonable Simulation Resolution

Author: Xixi Wang
Organization: Iowa State University

134 Davidson Hall
Ames, IA 50011
USA

Phone: (515) 294-3153
Fax: (515) 294-6633
wxx@iastate.edu

CERES-Maize was originally designed to evaluate various elements affecting maize yield at the field level. Thus, this model can't effectively consider field spatial variability such as soil, terrain, management practices, etc. GIS is an effective tool to store and manipulate spatial data. Coupled with GIS, CERES-Maize can be an ideal decision tool for site-specific agriculture. But cell size is radical because it affects the rasterization results of the thematic themes and thus affects inputs of the model. This paper takes the Sorenson farm, located in Greene County, Iowa, as an example of how to determine the reasonable simulation resolution of CERES-Maize. Results showed that, for the Sorenson farm, 40 m seems to be the reasonable resolution when coupled with ArcView GIS.