Audit of the Global Crop Monitoring System of the EU

Alterra (Dutch Agricultural Research Corporation) provides crop yield forecasting for the European Union as well as for the entire globe on two different scale levels. JRC (Joint Research Centre of the EU) has requested  HSS to compare the differences between the method applied by Alterra and the original method developed by (Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations)

This meant comparing the water balance method in two software packages : AMS (AgrometShell) developed by HSS for FAO and GWSI developed by Alterra . Although the primary focus of this report is the comparison of the water balance implementation, the general architecture of the models will be described as well as the complementarities and the possibilities for data exchange.

Following the analysis the conclusion is drawn that the methods differ only marginally and complement each other well. As an example, AMS could be used to analyze GWSI output.