The GEOINCA Research Group of the University of León (ULE) is among the 14 research groups of the ULE that are part of the EDIH DIGIS3, a consortium formed by six entities of Castile and León (University of León -ULE-, IoT-DIH (Air Institute), Digital Innovation Hub Industry 4. 0 -DIHBU-, and Digital Innovation Hub on Livestock, Environment, Agriculture & Forest -DIH-LEAF-, Supercomputing Castilla y León -SCAYLE- and Institute for Business Competitiveness of Castilla y León -ICE-), with the aim of promoting the Smart and Sustainable Digital Transformation of SMEs and public administrations of the community in the next three years.
GEOINCA is made up of highly qualified researchers in fields such as mining and energy engineering, chemical engineering, agroforestry engineering and geology, and its lines of research are linked to planning, territorial management and sustainable use of resources and protected natural areas, as well as productive activities in the primary sector. The scientists involved in this group are Javier Fernández Lozano, Carlos Sierra Fernández, Enoc Sanz Ablanedo, José Ramón Rodríguez Pérez and Natalia Gómez Marín.
One of the group's priorities is to collaborate with companies to facilitate the transfer of the results of research projects, and within the framework of this commitment, its contributions to the DIGIS3 project focus on two fields: training and testing and experimentation.
In terms of training, GEOINCA seeks to facilitate advanced training in enabling technologies for companies to optimise their production processes. The group's specialisation allows it to provide training courses in digital tools useful for the primary sector, such as the use of geographic information systems or the analysis of multispectral images, among others. The agri-food sector is one of the strategic sectors in the area and is therefore a segment with enormous potential for the applicability of this training.
In terms of testing and experimentation, GEOINCA designs proofs of concept and prototypes, as well as their testing and validation, focusing on the use of remote sensing tools and the internet. These lines of work seek to train companies in the use of mapping and remote sensing tools for the primary sector and in the use of the full potential offered by the Internet of Things (IoT) and Web Development for Applications on Mobile Devices.
A successful example of GEOINCA's lines of work is GeoincaMaps, a free mobile application developed for Android that creates cartographic content adapted to the needs of each user. This tool makes it possible to visualise for a company, layers of cartographic information, generated by external sources. GeoincaMaps was developed for companies in the primary sector (agriculture, forestry and livestock), although its fields of application are very diverse.
The GEOINCA Research Group of the University of León continues working to strengthen the link between research and the business sector, providing digital and sustainable solutions to SMEs and public administrations of Castilla y León that allow for an efficient and responsible management of resources and protected natural areas.
