Visitors to the ASSIST stand at Cereals 2018 will take a tour through future farmed landscapes using immersive virtual reality.
They will experience a VR tour via the world of popular videogame Minecraft at the event in Duxford, Cambridgeshire, on June 13-14.
CEH Craft, a virtual reality experience, represents the farmed landscape as it is now and how it might change in the future – including the habitats, crops, animals and buildings in VR.
Scientists at the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH) have been able to create these landscape scenarios using statistical models based on CEH’s crop maps and land cover maps, which use satellite images and digital cartography to provide land cover information for the entire UK.
Guided by a team from CEH, visitors to the ASSIST stand will, via VR headsets, be able to view these virtual reality landscapes. Screens will display a live feed of the users’ actions in the world of Minecraft – which is essentially virtual LEGO - thereby enabling wider audience participation and interaction.
This exciting visualisation tool has been developed as part of ASSIST (Achieving Sustainable Agricultural Systems). ASSIST is a long-term National Capability programme run by a partnership comprising CEH, Rothamsted Research and the British Geological Survey. It is funded jointly by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and the Biotechnology & Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC).
The ASSIST programme, which, with the support of the farming industry, aims to meet the challenge of feeding growing populations without causing unacceptable environmental damage.
Professor Richard Pywell, science area head of biodiversity at the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, who is programme director of ASSIST, said: “Farmers play a vital role in shaping and managing our countryside.
“The Minecraft tool is one of many ways we are working with farmers to design and visualise new commercial farming systems that are sustainable and resilient to future shocks.
“It allows us to rapidly explore future farming scenarios with farmers in order to gauge their preferences and views.”
You will be able to meet the ASSIST team at stand no. 246, near the North Visitor Entrance at Cereals 2018 on June 13-14.
Links
For more about the ASSIST programme, see http://assist.ceh.ac.uk
For details about CEH Land Cover Maps and Land Cover Plus®: Crops, including obtaining a licence, click here
For more information about the Cereals event, see www.cerealsevent.co.uk
