Rectangular shape management zone delineation using integer linear programming

The spatial variability of soil properties is one of the main impairments to the productivity and crop quality in agriculture. Delineating the field into site-specific management zones is usually implemented to face within-field variability. Classical zoning methods, based on soil fertility variables, have a disadvantage: the zones have oval shapes which are not practical for the variable rate technology and machinery. In this work, we present a new zoning method that optimally delineates rectangular homogeneous management zones, using relative variance to guarantee the homogeneity. This zoning method, based on soil properties, relies on an integer linear programming model that is efficiently solved to optimality. Experimental results on real and generated instances validated the method and enabled a graphical visualization of the solution.

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