Important terms to understand
Terms
- Field history: The field conditions and management events that occurred on a field before the reporting period. Importantly this is not a distinct term used in the Inventory API but it is important to be aware of due to it's use by DNDC.
- Cultivation Cycle: A distinct grouping of field management events that correspond to a cultivation cycle. Typically, this is harvest of a commodity crop to the harvest of the following commodity. Cultivation cycles are inclusive of tillage, planting, irrigation, nutrient management and harvest practices, as well as other adopted interventions such as a cover crop in the off season.
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Simulation: A simulation is the process of modeling emissions outcomes on a field using the DNDC model.
- Reporting information: Time period for which emissions should be quantified.
Construction of Cultivation Cycles
Each field should be composed of cultivation cycles with a discrete start and end date.
Cultivation cycle start and end dates should be continuous with no gaps.
Typically, cultivation cycles start the day after the harvest of a commodity crop and end the day of the harvest of the following commodity.
Cultivation cycles are inclusive of all the management events that occurred on that field during that cultivation cycle. This includes tillage, planting, irrigation, nutrient management and harvest.
DNDC requires a minimum of four cultivation cycles: 3 historic and 1 reporting.
The reporting period is the cultivation cycle in which the emissions is being quantified. Usually your reporting period is the most recent cultivate cycle. There can only be one measured crop declared in the reporting period. Usually this is your commodity crops for which you are interested in allocating emissions.
