Configurating a Simulation¶

Agromanagement¶

The agromanagent files in /env_config/agro controls the underlying crop simulation in /pcse/ by loading different parameter sets for crops and soils. All Agromanagement files are written in YAML. An agromanagement file consists of three parts.

File Heading¶

Every agromanagement file must start with the heading Agromanagement:

Agromanagement:

Site¶

AgroManagement:
    Site:
        latitude: 52
        longitude: 5
        year: 1984

latitude and longitude set the latitude and longitude of the site. Along with year, latitude and longitude are used to load the historical weather for that latitude, longitude and year using the NASA Power API.

NOTE: the latitude, longitude and year can be overridden in the env.reset() function or with the --npk-args.random-reset flag.

SoilCalendar¶

After the Agromanagement Heading, there must be a valid SoilCalendar, which looks like:

AgroManagement:
    SoilCalendar:
        soil_name: oregon
        soil_variation: oregon_1
        soil_start_date: 1985-01-01
        soil_end_date: 1985-12-01

soil_name and soil_variation read the parameters from the env_config/soil/soil_name.yaml given the soil_variation.

Check that the soil_variation appears under the Variations header in the soil_name.yaml file. See Creating a Soil

soil_start_date and soil_end_date set the global starting and ending dates of the simulation. The specifc year is almost always unimportant, as it will simply correlate to the length of the simulation in years.

Example: setting soil_start_date: 1985-01-01 and soil_end_date: 1985-12-01 will result in the same output as setting soil_start_date: 2011-01-01 and soil_end_date: 2011-12-01
This is because on calling env.reset() the year is passed with the start month and day, and the difference between the soil_start_date and soil_end_date. While this feels a bit clunky, it makes validation very easy.

Caution

When training a RL Agent, the soil_start_date and soil_end_date should correspond to the crop_start_date and crop_end_date, otherwise there will be crop observation variables missing which the RL Agent cannot handle.

CropCalendar¶

In addition to the SoilCalendar, there must be a valid CropCalendar, which looks like:

CropCalendar:
    crop_name: wheat
    crop_variety: wheat_1
    crop_start_date: 1985-01-01
    crop_start_type: sowing
    crop_end_date: 1985-08-01
    crop_end_type: death
    max_duration: 365

crop_name and crop_variety read the parameters from the env_config/crop/crop_name.yaml given the crop_variety.

Check that the crop_variety appears under the Varieties header in the crop_name.yaml file. See Creating a Crop

crop_start_date and crop_end_date set the dates that the crop starts and the maximum length of the crop. The crop_start_date must come after the soil_start_date as a crop cannot be present without an active soil, and the crop_end_date must happen before the soil_end_date as there cannot be an active crop without an active soil.

The crop_start_type dictates the crop stage that the crop starts in. * For annual crops, valid start types are: sowing and emergence. * For perennial crops, valid start types are: sowing, emergence and dormant. * For grape specific simulations, specified by crop_name: grape, valid start types are: endodorm and ecodorm.

The crop_end_type controls the stage or trigger that the end the crop portion of the simulation * For annual and perrennial crops, valid end types are: sowing, emergence, maturity, harvest, death, and max_duration. * For grape specific simulations, valid end types are: endodorm, ecodorm, budbreak, verasion, ripe, max_duration.

max_duration controls the maximum duration in days that a crop can be active. Regardless of the crop_end_type, if the maximum duration is reached, the crop will become inactive, although the soil simulation may continue.

For more information on how crops and soils interact, see Soils and Crops

Full Example¶

After the three parts outlined above, a complete example would look like:

AgroManagement:
    Site:
        latitude: 52
        longitude: 5
        year: 1984
    SoilCalendar:
        soil_name: oregon
        soil_variation: oregon_1
        soil_start_date: 1985-01-01
        soil_end_date: 1985-12-01
    CropCalendar:
        crop_name: wheat
        crop_variety: wheat_1
        crop_start_date: 1985-01-01
        crop_start_type: sowing
        crop_end_date: 1985-08-01
        crop_end_type: death
        max_duration: 365

Agromanagement Template¶

AgroManagement:
    Site:
        latitude:
        longitude:
        year:
    SoilCalendar:
        soil_name:
        soil_variation:
        soil_start_date:
        soil_end_date:
    CropCalendar:
        crop_name:
        crop_variety:
        crop_start_date:
        crop_start_type:
        crop_end_date:
        crop_end_type:
        max_duration: