Geospatial Data

CASFER's Thrust 1 focuses on developing multi-dimenstional models to support the nitrogen circular economy and creating a monitoring network. A large facet of Thrust 1 research is devoted to gathering and interpreting the geospatial data associated with farms, animal feeding operations, wastewater treatment plants, and other waste streams.

According to IBM, "Geospatial data is information that describes objects, events or other features with a location on or near the surface of the earth. Geospatial data typically combines location information (usually coordinates on the earth) and attribute information (the characteristics of the object, event or phenomena concerned) with temporal information (the time or life span at which the location and attributes exist)."

CASFER utilizes geospatial data to get a better understanding of where fertilizer is being used, and the paths of waste streams. Geospatial data is important to the work CASFER does by providing a blueprint of areas that are most impacted by nitrogen cycle pollution and giving insight to where CASFER technologies will be most affective.