(SAR) to Support Agricultural Monitoring 2 - Group on Earth ...

International GEO Workshop on <strong>SAR</strong> <strong>to</strong> <strong>Support</strong> <strong>Agricultural</strong> Moni<strong>to</strong>ring
2. Methodology
At the kick-off meeting, the project team discussed the information requirements, in other
words, what information we really need <strong>to</strong> get from this survey. Based on the
information requirements, the survey was drafted and discussed within the team. The
survey is provided in Appendix C. The survey was divided in<strong>to</strong> three main sections:
• Information about the respondent, description of their organization and role in the
organization.
• Current and planned use of agricultural moni<strong>to</strong>ring data: information needs by
application, types and amount of <strong>SAR</strong> data used, types of optical data used, in-situ
data types, technical information requirements, maturity of moni<strong>to</strong>ring
applications and importance of <strong>SAR</strong> data in their moni<strong>to</strong>ring applications.
• Views on How <strong>to</strong> Encourage Greater Use of <strong>SAR</strong> Data: fac<strong>to</strong>rs that would
encourage greater use of <strong>SAR</strong> data for agricultural moni<strong>to</strong>ring, suggestions <strong>to</strong>
encourage:
o greater use of <strong>SAR</strong> data through science,
o greater operational use of <strong>SAR</strong> data and
o greater capacity <strong>to</strong> use <strong>SAR</strong> data.
The survey was drafted in a ‘clickable’ format by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
(AAFC) in consultation with the C-GEO. An introduction letter was drafted <strong>to</strong> inform
stakeholders about the survey and entice them <strong>to</strong> send back the filled in survey.
A small sample of stakeholders was asked <strong>to</strong> fill in a ‘test’ version of the survey. Based
on their feedback, the survey was finalized. Then it was translated and e-mailed out with
the introduction letter by the C-GEO office.
The survey was distributed via:
• mailing list,
• the C-GEO web site, and
• the encouragement of regional agricultural representatives.
The C-GEO office sent out a reminder e-mail <strong>to</strong> the mailing list. In addition, participants
at the workshop were encouraged <strong>to</strong> fill out the survey.
The author drafted a spreadsheet <strong>to</strong> capture survey results such that statistical analysis
could be done efficiently. Once the questionnaire replies came in, they were copied in<strong>to</strong>
an analysis spreadsheet by personnel from the Canadian Forest Service (CFS).
The author then summarized all of the survey results in this report.
Report on Results: Survey on <strong>SAR</strong> <strong>to</strong> <strong>Support</strong> <strong>Agricultural</strong> Moni<strong>to</strong>ring – Annex 1 2