Area Measurement for European Agricultural Subsidy Claims

Anthony Haddrell and Mark Sampson

Abstract:	In 1993 the European Economic Community introduced legislation requiring specific area measurement accuracies to be observed by individual farmers claiming subsidies on areas of land devoted to particular crops or set aside for conservation. Claims found to be over estimated are subject to a fine which increases with the size of the error. The new legislation prompted a rush on map suppliers, surveyors and land agents. It was quickly established that map measurement methods were likely to be out of date or inaccurate and that traditional surveys were accurate, but cost almost completely negated the benefit from receipt of subsidy. The paper describes the use of GPS to quickly measure areas within the accuracy required by the legislation. The system uses lowcost GPS base station and mobile receivers. The mobile unit is combined with a data logger for noting features of the area under study. Post processing of smoothed pseudo range measurements is used to derive positional information to an accuracy of l-2 metres. From these the area under survey can be calculated. A survey can be executed rapidly, resulting in a cost effective service to the European farming community. The paper shows the stages of a typical survey, and presents results obtained under actual survey conditions.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 6th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GPS 1993) September 22 - 24, 1993 Salt Palace Convention Center Salt Lake City, UT
Pages:	419 - 424
Cite this article:	Haddrell, Anthony, Sampson, Mark, "Area Measurement for European Agricultural Subsidy Claims," Proceedings of the 6th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GPS 1993), Salt Lake City, UT, September 1993, pp. 419-424.
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