Using ARDC Nectar VMs, Jupyter Hub and GitHub to Deploy Agricultural Modelling Applications on the AgReFed Platform
Francis Gacenga1, Duc-Anh An-Vo1 1University Of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia
Abstract
In this half-day workshop participants will learn how to develop and use Jupyter Notebooks and Virtual Machines to run scientific workflows. We will demonstrate data integration workflow for Agricultural applications in Australia.
The Agricultural Modelling notebooks here were developed for three applications presented in 3 separate user case notebooks:
1. Sowing date of wheat crop across the wheatbelt to achieve the best profit
2. Using seasonal climate forecast to support when to sow wheat
3. Irrigation scheduling of sugarcane to achieve the best profit
Participants will have a hands on session through these notebooks in the workshop to learn about how to analyse databases generated by Agricultural Models such as APSIM to support real decision making in agriculture. Other essential skills for agricultural researchers can also be learned such as data accessing using API, static and interactive mapping, and visualisation.
Users of the AgReFed platform will be able to work with a production system simulation of their choice, allowing them to integrate with other data sources for decision analytics. The integration provides a unique capability of the AgReFed platform in crop modelling and simulations – a powerful tool for agricultural research. Users will be guided on how to put crop modelling and simulations into decision making frameworks, informing agricultural management decisions.
Biography
Dr Duc-Anh An-Vo has been a multi-disciplinary computational modeller across different disciplines from engineering (mechanics and materials), sciences (climate and agriculture) and economics (natural resources and decision making). He has broadly combined the available data sources together with physical and mathematical models to tackle climate change challenges. He is applying computational sciences, climate sciences and economics toward better decision making in agriculture and society. He is one of the principal developers of the AgReFed Platform for transforming agricultural research by modelling and data analytics on “cloud”. His research works were funded by industries (GRDC, MLA, ARC in Australia), and international funders such as IKI.
Dr Francis Gacenga is UniSQ’s Senior Digital Research Advisor. He is an IT Service Manager and researcher with international experience as a practitioner and published researcher. He has undertaken research funded by the ARC, ARDC and recently a Soils CRC funded project.