ABSTRACT

Disease and pest populations, host (crop) populations, climate, differences in management tactics, and local economic conditions all cause disease risks to vary, not only temporally, but also spatially. Adding a spatial component to disease risk assessment will help farmers and disease managers make more informed management decisions, by geospatially deŽning “prescription” management zones that coincide with geospatially deŽned disease risk zones. Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technologies can be utilized to geospatially reference information from disease forecasting models, disease surveys, and maps of abiotic (e.g., climate, weather, soil type, elevation) and biotic factors (presence/survival of initial inoculum, successful overwintering of insect vectors, disease status in previous years, etc.) that in¬uence disease risk, and then used to accurately deŽne prescription management zones (both temporally and spatially).1-4 Disease intensity survey data, when coupled with GPS, GIS, and geostatistical tools can be used to generate maps that more precisely delineate relative levels of disease risk (low, moderate, high) across numerous spatial scales.1,2,5-8 This chapter illustrates, through speciŽc pathosystem case studies, how GPS, GIS, and remote sensing technologies can be integrated to support principles of plant disease management.