ISHS Acta Horticulturae 304: I International Workshop on Sensors in Horticulture
FOREWORD |
| Authors: | Th.H. Gieling, K. Schurer |
| Abstract:
This workshop was organised from 29 till 31 January 1991 as a first ISHS workshop on the subject of the application of sensors in horticulture. The workshop was held in The Congress Centre of Noordwijkerhout in the Netherlands and was sponsored by the SPRINT programme of the EEC and by six commercial sponsors. The theme of the workshop was concerned with the use of sensors in research, preferably in connection with application in practice. The workshop was initiated by W.P. Mulder. The IMAG-DLO institute was invited to organise the workshop. Approximately 100 potential participants were contacted, resulting in 48 first registrations. The 'Gulf-war' was an unexpected hurdle. Several participants had to cancel their participation. Amongst them two invited speakers, whom we had to replace on a very short notice. Each of six half workshop days was used for a specific session. The first session was used for the opening ceremony and invited speeches. The opening ceremony was performed by Prof. Dr. K. Verhoeff - director of the Department of Science and Technology of the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature Management and Fisheries. The last half day was used for the closing ceremony, miscellaneous subjects and invited speakers. The remaining four half days of the workshop were used for poster sessions. A paper was presented at the start of each poster session by the session chairman, reviewing the research on the specific topic. During each poster session an invited speaker presented a paper of a more general nature. Each poster session was available for the participants to look at posters and discuss with the authors. The workshop ended with a visit to the Annual Dutch Fair for Horticultural Engineering. In the discussions at the end of the sessions, it became clear that there was a demand for continuation of this first initiative. An inquiry was held during the last day of the workshop. It indicated that most of the participants would prefer an ISHS workinggroup within the Commission Engineering to prepare continuing activity. In consultation with the Chairman of the Commission Engineering a workinggroup was started. This workinggroup will try to prepare a next meeting in 1993. At the end of this foreword I would like to thank first of all the people who spend a lot of time in organizing this workshop: the members of the organizing committee, the secretariat and the editorial board. In particular I would like to thank Joop Zijlstra for his perseverance in hectic moments and Wim van Meurs for the enormous job of editing the Book of Abstracts. Acknowledgement should be made to ISHS, Commission Engineering and IMAG-DLO as the organizing institute.
Special thanks we owe to the sponsors who gave our initiative more financial background: the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature Management and Fisheries of the Netherlands, the Sprint Programme of the Commission of European Communities, PRIVA B.V., Applikon B.V., Leica, Honeywell B.V., Kipp & Zonen Delft B.V. and Heimann. The workshop Sensors in Horticulture was intended as a meeting place of developers and users of sensors in relation to horticulture. The present volume reflects this dual interest. It also exhibits the wide variety of objects and quantities to be sensed in horticulture. The field is moving rapidly and this first workshop has not covered every topic conceivable. The common feeling among participants was that in about two years time there will be ample new material to justify another workshop. The editors have welcomed the present policy of Acta to have as many as possible of the papers refereed. The editorial board has chosen for an approach of having the contributed papers refereed by an expert referee on -mainly- scientific criteria and by one of the editors on -mainly-compliance with the criteria put forward in the invitation for the workshop. The completion of these proceedings depended on the cooperation of a great many people. The authors had to provide their manuscripts. The editors are glad to acknowledge the willingness of the authors to supply their texts on a diskette. This has significantly enlightened the life of the editors in this hectic period. The referees did a wonderful job. They were willing at our first request to read manuscripts and to give their detailed and thorough comments. The authors made revisions to incorporate editorial and scientific comments and therewith improve the quality of their paper. Yet this operation should not suffer undue delays. One of the editors, Wim van Meurs, undertook to process all papers to produce a more uniform lay-out, so that this volume might look like a book, rather then like a pile of sheets. The result shows how succesful he has been. The production of the Proceedings was in the expert hands of ISHS. Their help throughout the preparation has been greatly appreciated. A few authors could not find an opportunity to prepare a revision of their manuscript.
Their papers, together with a few that did, after a revision, not yet meet the standards, are presented in a last section marked "Not refereed". In doing so, the editors have sought to ascertain a high standard of the papers in this volume and yet to give a full account of what has been going on at the workshop. | |
