Imagine being a grape grower and being able to check on any one vine at any given time. Or being able to know exactly when to spray pesticides to protect the crops - or not.

Researchers at Niagara College, Brock University and the University of Guelph are partnering with Ontario vineyards to supply them with real-time weather forecast information based on regional data sources. Part of this collaboration uses newly developed sensor technology that will continuously report on variables such as temperature and humidity in each participating vineyard. Niagara College is also working with these partners and local experts like Dr. Tony Shaw of Brock University to develop computer forecast models of in-field, real-time disease pressure based on these information sources.

One purpose is to tell growers in real time if and when they need to spray pesticides and other agrochemicals. Research results may save growers time and money, improve the taste of Ontario wines, and improve vineyards' impact on the environment by reducing the overall use of agrochemicals.

With funding provided by the Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE), these collaborative research projects are working directly with Thirty Bench Vineyards, Coyote's Run Estate Winery, Stratus Vineyards and a private vineyard owner in Vineland in the Niagara wine region.

Each individual vine in each vineyard has been GPS located, tagged and recorded into a database of the PrAgMatic system developed by Niagara Research at Niagara College. Large datasets collected by sensors are three-dimensionally mapped and researchers involved in the project at other institutions are able to access the results over the ORION network.

"Over the next few years the ORION network will be very useful in allowing us to share these massive datasets with our expanding family of collaborators," says Dr. Michael Duncan, Chair, Visualization Sciences at Niagara College. "The most data intensive applications will involve the sensor networks - as they kick in the data volumes will become huge."

The PrAgMatic data management system collects, processes and disseminates data and information to growers and researchers. The system consists of numerous 'channels', each representing a view into a vineyard's data-space. Researchers involved in vineyard research will be able to take their research results and encapsulate them as a channel that provides a grower with a view into their vineyard.

"The channel structure gives each researcher an opportunity to show and commercialize their work through this interface," says Duncan.

The channel model also allows students the opportunity to engage with a relatively complete project. For instance, students could take the results and create a map or an alert. In this way, students can build a relationship with a faculty researcher whose channel they are working on and with the grape grower who wants to see the results.

Dr. Andrew G. Reynolds, Professor of Viticulture at the Cool Climate Oenology & Viticulture Institute (CCOVI) at Brock University, Dr. Ralph Brown, Professor of Engineering at the University of Guelph, and Dr. Marilyne Jollineau, Associate Professor of Geography at Brock, are developing processes for determining grape quality within a vineyard field. Each of these processes will result in a channel that will run within the PrAgMatic system. A channel will take the data and run an algorithm or process over the data to produce information, which is then displayed.

"It is very Web 2.0 oriented," says Duncan, "and very reliant on network bandwidth and latency to make the whole thing look integrated. This means that each research group can maintain its own channel, independent of us, as long as their output follows a certain specification. The more robust the network, the more cohesive PrAgMatic will look - another advantage of using ORION."

Niagara College's own vineyard is serving as the testbed for the sensor networks. A detailed survey of the vineyard (consisting of GPS tagging each vine) was done as a student project some years ago by two students in the GIS program.

Students at Niagara College who will be working with the data are in Programming, Computer Engineering, Winery and Viticulture Studies, Environmental Studies and GIS Geospatial Management programs. The programmers will develop the tools to display and use the data, the viticulture students will help define what information is needed, the environmental studies students will help with soil sampling and define what should be measured and reported on, and the GIS students to develop the datasets and tools for display and dissemination.

The project began about four years ago when Niagara College was contacted by a private owner of a vineyard in Vineland who was looking for a way to locate and monitor frost abatement technology on the vineyard. Students created a three-dimensional map that plotted each vine. The 3D map was a base on which soil and hydrodynamic flow information (for cold air flows) allowed Niagara College to help position frost abatement technology.

Duncan is the lead on the PrAgMatic database system capturing and distributing the data. This project, involving Dr. Reynolds and Dr. Brown, is processing the data directly from Thirty Bench Vineyards, Coyote's Run Estate Winery, and the Niagara College Winery. Dr. Jollineau is working separately with Stratus Winery. Each team will produce a PrAgMatic channel that can then be sold or used as a service.

"Precision agriculture is new to Canada and Ontario, so we just don't think in terms of the data volumes one might need," says Duncan. "Once the other (sensor) networks hit the field they will be returning five times the current amount of data and there will be 50+ nodes in each field."

Summing up, Duncan adds that "such big data needs a big network: ORION."