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Advances in Spatial Science Roberto Benedetti Federica Piersimoni Paolo Postiglione Sampling Spatial Units for Agricultural Surveys Advances in Spatial Science The Regional Science Series SeriesEditors ManfredM.Fischer Jean-ClaudeThill JoukevanDijk HansWestlund AdvisoryEditors Geoffrey J.D. Hewings Peter Nijkamp Folke Snickars Moreinformationaboutthisseriesat http://www.springer.com/series/3302 Roberto Benedetti (cid:129) Federica Piersimoni (cid:129) Paolo Postiglione Sampling Spatial Units for Agricultural Surveys RobertoBenedetti FedericaPiersimoni PaoloPostiglione AgriculturalStatisticalService DepartmentofEconomicStudies ItalianNationalStatisticalInstitute,ISTAT “G.d’Annunzio”University Rome ofChieti-Pescara Italy Pescara Italy ISSN1430-9602 ISSN 2197-9375 (electronic) AdvancesinSpatialScience ISBN978-3-662-46007-8 ISBN978-3-662-46008-5 (eBook) DOI10.1007/978-3-662-46008-5 LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2015933847 SpringerHeidelbergNewYorkDordrechtLondon ©Springer-VerlagBerlinHeidelberg2015 Thisworkissubjecttocopyright.AllrightsarereservedbythePublisher,whetherthewholeorpart of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilarmethodologynowknownorhereafterdeveloped. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publicationdoesnotimply,evenintheabsenceofaspecificstatement,thatsuchnamesareexempt fromtherelevantprotectivelawsandregulationsandthereforefreeforgeneraluse. Thepublisher,theauthorsandtheeditorsaresafetoassumethattheadviceandinformationinthis book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained hereinorforanyerrorsoromissionsthatmayhavebeenmade. Printedonacid-freepaper SpringerispartofSpringerScience+BusinessMedia(www.springer.com) Roberto To Agnese and Giulio Federica To Renata and Oscar Paolo To Pina and Carlo ThiSisaFMBlankPage Preface Althoughagriculturerepresentsanincreasinglymarginalroleintheworldeconomy intermsofpercentageofGrossDomesticProduct,theradicaleconomicandsocial transformationscharacterizingnotonlytheWesternbutalsothedevelopingcoun- trieshaverecentlycausedanewandpromisinginterestinthisfield. It is becoming increasingly difficult to provide reliable information to assist in makingpublicpolicydecisionsformonitoringtheproductionofagriculturalgoods anditseffectontheenvironmentandfoodsafety. Agriculturaldatacollectionprogramscannormallybeclassifiedaseithercensus orsamplesurveys.Acensusisasurveywhichcollectsdatafromallmembersofa population.Asamplesurveydiffersbysurveyingasmallnumberorproportionof thepopulation.However,acensushasstronglimitations:inparticular,thecostand the logistics associated with the need for human and financial resources. As a consequence, it has never been very practical to organize a census on an annual basis. Conversely,samplesurveysaremoreefficientandareabletoprovideresultsina moretimelyfashion. This book is completely concerned with the analysis of sample surveys in agriculture.Thisresearchfieldparticularlydealswithareaestimationmethodsfor differentcrops,cropyield,andcropproductionforvariousharvestsacrossdifferent regions. In particular, our focus is on sampling of spatial units. This typology of surveyhasincreasingstrategicimportanceforprovidingappropriateinformationin theagriculturalsectorasasupportforbothpolicymakersandmarketstakeholders. Theparticularnatureofgeo-referencedunitshasinfluencedthedefinitionofthe models for the analysis of spatial data, but surprisingly, we do not find a similar researcheffortfortheissueofspatialdatacollection. The phase of data collection is crucial and influences in a remarkable way the following step of data analysis. To the best of our knowledge, in the current literature there exists no comprehensive source of information regarding the vii viii Preface collectionmethodsexploitingthespatialcharacteristicsofthedata.Ouraimisto contribute to fill this gap with a book that describes all the phases of spatial data collection. Anotheraimofthisbookconsistsinstimulatingresearchinthisfieldand,forthis reason,weareawarethatitcannotbeconsideredasacomprehensiveanddefinitive reference about the methods that can be used in spatial agricultural surveys. However,itpresents,inouropinion,thestateoftheartaboutseveralcrucialissues onspatialsampling. Furthermore,theagriculturalorientationofthebookmightrepresentoneofthe mainnoveltiesofthework.Infact,theframeworkofsamplingspatialunitsisalso usedforenvironmentalandforestdata,withmethodsthatareoftendifferentfrom thoseusedforagriculturaldata. The methods described in the text will be accompanied by real and simulated examplesthatwillbeimplementedinRcode.WeaddedtheRcodesofmanyofthe techniquesdescribedinthetexthopingtomakethesemethodsavailabletoanyone whowantstousethemeitherforresearchpurposesorfordesigningandprocessing existingsurveys.Risanopen-sourceandfreesoftwareenvironmentforstatistical computingandgraphicsthatrunsonawidevarietyofoperatingsystemsincluding Windows, Mac OSX, and LINUX. Since the last couple of decades, it has been developedbyhundredsofcontributorsandnewcapabilitiesareaddedeachmonth. We believe that the flexibility and robustnessof thissoftware justifyits use, even forlargepopulations. Wehopethatthisbookcouldserveasastartingpointforresearchinthisfieldto stimulatethederivationofnewandefficientmethodsfortheanalysisanddesignof spatialsamplesand,finally,asafieldmanualforpracticingagriculturalsurveyors, analysts,andresearchers. Outline of the Book The book is organized in 12 chapters. The scheme and the main interrelations betweenchaptersaresummarizedinthefollowingFig.1. Preface ix Fig.1 Outlineofthebook Thetopicofspatialsamplingforagricultureiscomplexandcomposite,sinceit involvesseveraldisciplinesorprofessionalspecializationsforitstreatment.Forthis reason,wedevotethefirstfourchaptersofthebook(Chaps.1–4)tothedescription of some aspects that constitute a necessary scientific background for spatial sam- plingofagriculturalresources. In particular, Chap. 1 represents our starting point on which is based all the narrative of the book. In fact, Chap. 1 contains the description of the main