CRAST (Spatial Analysis and Remote Sensing Research Center)
CRAST (Spatial Analysis and Remote Sensing Research Center)

Overview

The CRAST (Spatial Analysis and Remote Sensing Research Center) is a research center of the Agricultural Sciences Faculty of the  Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (UCSC), the largest Italian free academic institution. Thanks to half a century of research work, teaching and training activities the Agricultural faculty of Piacenza and Cremona has achieved a reputation of prestige that extends well beyond Italy. In recent years, research has been concentrated on certain particularly important contexts including: genetics and food safety, vegetable and animal products, crop and food protection, milk and dairy production, viticulture and wine production, agri-food economy and environmental protection.

The CRAST center has been involved in several research and operational activities addressing the spatial characterization and distribution of agricultural systems. CRAST carried out research activities in the general application of Geographical Information Systems and Remote Sensing to the agricultural and… Remote sensing Lab with workstations and main software packages for the analysis of remotely sensed data (PCI Geomatica, ENVI, e-Cognition). Complete equipment for field spectroradiometry (FieldSpecHH and HH2 VIS-NIR spectroradiometers with contact probe, CROPSCAN MSR16 VIS-NIR spectroradiometer) and measure of vegetation biophysical parameters (Licor LAI2000, Decagon AccuPAR LP-80 Ceptometer, Minolta SPAD 502 chlorophyll meter; portable gas-exchange meter ADC LCi and CIRAS 2; Thermal Imaging camera FLIR).

Animal farming activities are also performed by using Ruminometer SCR Heatime® Pro for monitoring of rumination activity, Individual feeding station "Calan Broadbent Feeding System" for dairy cow.

Software SimaPro for LCA in agricultural systems.
. The CRAST centre offers several services to SMEs: 

Remotely sensed images and mapping;
Application of remotely sensed data to in agricultural systems;
Designing and management of variable rate application protocols in annual crops, orchards and vineyards (e.g. fertilization, irrigation and selective harvesting);
Experimental facilities to carry out nutritional/performance trials on livestock (dairy cows, sheep, swine, poultry);
LCA;
Real-time monitoring of food processing.

These services are, amongst others, interesting for SMEs active in sensors (like meteo sensors, soil sensors, canopy sensor, etc.), smart machinery for the agriculture industry, and digital mapping from proximal and remote sensing. 
. Yes. service.