BELCAM - An independent platform for remote sensing crop monitoring
The BELCAM platform, which will be officially launched in 2019, enables farmers to monitor their field crops free of charge using data from the European Copernicus satellites. This independent platform, supported by UCLouvain and CRA-W, has been maintained and improved with limited resources since its official launch.
Towards an optimised platform for farmers
With funding from Project 139 of the Plan de Relance de la Wallonie (Open Data - Action ‘la donnée partagée en agriculture’), the aim is to bring this platform to a degree of maturity and functionality that is more attractive to potential users, and to improve its interoperability with other Walloon platforms.
The project, which is funded until September 2026, has 4 main strands:
- Finalising BELCAM so that it can be used more effectively by farmers, supervisory bodies and scientists.
- Implementing new products in BELCAM and improving the algorithms used for certain products already on the platform: characterising intra-field heterogeneity, estimating the biomass of cover crops, improving algorithms for assessing the nitrogen status of wheat and potatoes.
- Data flow management: establishing interoperable data exchange protocols between BELCAM and other existing platforms (WALLeSmart, Agromet, etc.).
- Popularising and disseminating the platform to users: organising information and demonstration sessions to promote the tool and encourage its use by farmers and supervisory bodies.
Financement
Project 139 of the Plan de Relance de la Wallonie : Open Data – Action “la donnée partagée en agriculture”
