Decision Support for Water Management in the Specialty Crop Agriculture Sector

The project will develop a decision support capability for the specialty crop industry to address specific risks from flooding and to effectively respond to associated events when they occur. The solution will leverage unique capabilities being delivered to the specialty crop industry today and build upon it a decision support framework driven by national data products and analyses from NASA, its cooperating partners, and 3rd parties. The system will combine nowcasting and forecasting products with agriculture production data to support growers, suppliers and associated stakeholders with risk mitigation, disaster planning and response. Core to the system will be a decision support engine with a user-friendly interface appropriate for farmers and other industry stakeholders. The project’s technical objectives include: 1) development of a prototype operational capability for the risk management toolkit for real-world testing by ag producer users and refinements, 2) establishment of decision support rules from models and user input data, and 3) refinement of user scenarios and use cases through ag producer testing and feedback. Integrate the risk management toolkit into existing production operations.

The decision support capability will rely upon NASA’s AMSR-E, TMI and GMI passive microwave sensors as input data sets and may integrate NASA’s Dynamic Surface Water Extent (DSWx) suite of data products. The resulting system will be useful by local, state and federal agencies focused on regional water management and risk reduction. The principal user base for the system will be growers of fresh vegetables and fruit crops and other commercial stakeholders in that industry. Grower food safety teams will be able to evaluate which fields were impacted by a flood event and efficiently plan inspections and pathogen tests to minimize costs and supply disruptions. Companies providing production financing and insurance will be able to verify risk profiles based on scenario planning.

This is a mature technology (TRL 7+) — the realistic path in is usually NASA's Technology Transfer Program: licensing an existing NASA patent, or a Space Act Agreement to use NASA facilities/expertise directly. NASA also runs a startup licensing program with no upfront fee for companies formed to commercialize a specific NASA technology.

None of these are guaranteed paths for this specific project — TechPort itself doesn't have an "apply" button. Reaching out to the contact(s) above with a specific question is usually the fastest way to find out what's actually open.