Abstract
GIS Decision Support System for Planned Expansion of Animal Enterprises Track: Agriculture Author(s): Ben Koostra, Steve Higgins, Scott Shearer In an effort to continue diversification of agricultural enterprises and decrease the dependence on tobacco as a major farm commodity, the expansion of poultry or other animal enterprises in Kentucky can have significant impacts for farm, local, regional, and state economies. The challenge is to encourage this expansion while minimizing the environmental impacts from this expansion. GIS is an ideal tool to use for making informed decisions for the expansion of animal enterprises. This paper presents the development and evaluation of spatial analysis tools as a decision support system (DSS) implemented in a GIS environment for making informed decisions concerning the expansion of animal enterprises in Kentucky. The datasets used for analysis include locations of existing poultry operations identified from recent aerial photography, available soil test levels, mapped soils units, known impaired streams and watersheds, transportation networks, and land-use categories. Ben Koostra University of Kentucky Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering 128 CE Barnhart Building Lexington , KY 40546-0276 US Phone: 859.257.3000 E-mail: bkoostra@bae.uky.edu Steve Higgins University of Kentucky Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering 128 CE Barnhart Building Lexington , KY 40546-0276 US Phone: 859.257.3000 E-mail: shiggins@bae.uky.edu Scott Shearer University of Kentucky Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering 128 CE Barnhart Building Lexington , KY 40546-0276 US Phone: 859.257.3000 E-mail: shearer@bae.uky.edu |
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