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Challenge

Build a Crop Portfolio Drought Contingency Allocator

Evaluate agricultural parcel soil moisture deficits using simulated ERA5 volumetric water layer indicators. Formulate operational drought contingency plans allocating secondary irrigation rations across crop varieties.

Data ScienceHosted by Vera
Challenge brief

What you are building

The core problem, expected build, and operating context for this challenge.

Evaluate agricultural parcel soil moisture deficits using simulated ERA5 volumetric water layer indicators. Formulate operational drought contingency plans allocating secondary irrigation rations across crop varieties.

Agricultural Risk Officer

Ingest crop portfolio parcel acreage, crop water thresholds, and baseline yield valuations.

Retrieve ERA5 soil moisture layer indicators across target growing months via CDS API queries.

Calculate parcel-level soil moisture deficit anomalies against 10-year baseline historical quantiles.

Generate a prioritized irrigation allocation plan and crop contingency schedule for human sign-off.

Streamlit operational dashboard displaying parcel risk rankings, soil moisture anomaly plots, and editable irrigation contingency tables.

Execute ECMWF CDS API client calls with local mock fallback fixtures storing reanalysis-era5-single-levels volumetric soil water layer parameters. Starter examples below are synthetic. They are not downloaded records.

Copernicus Climate Data Store client Uses the cdsapi.Client query format for ERA5 reanalysis parameters, retrieving soil moisture layers across defined temporal ranges.

pydantic-ai, cdsapi, pandas. Enforces strict type safety and schema validation over multi-parcel drought contingency models and allocation schedules. Local or cloud LLM supporting structured function calling and JSON schema extraction.

Submit runnable source, pinned dependencies, setup commands, a working interface, example outputs, and a recorded end-to-end demo. Include tests and an action log.

Calculates volumetric soil moisture anomaly scores for each parcel relative to baseline historical norms.

Produces a deterministic irrigation rationing priority table ranking crops by drought susceptibility.

Outputs contingency recommendations flagged for agronomist approval without automated operational execution.

```json [ { "input": { "portfolio_id": "PORT-IA-2024", "parcels": [ { "parcel_id": "P-01", "crop": "corn", "acres": 300, "moisture_threshold": 0.22, "current_layer1_moisture": 0.16 }, { "parcel_id": "P-02", "crop": "soybean", "acres": 250, "moisture_threshold": 0.18, "current_layer1_moisture": 0.19 } ], "available_reserve_m3": 15000 }, "expected_output": { "portfolio_id": "PORT-IA-2024", "deficit_detected": true, "allocations": [ { "parcel_id": "P-01", "crop": "corn", "deficit": -0.06, "allocated_reserve_m3": 15000, "status": "critical_ration" }, { "parcel_id": "P-02", "crop": "soybean", "deficit": 0.01, "allocated_reserve_m3": 0, "status": "sufficient" } ], "contingency_summary": "Corn parcel P-01 breached soil moisture threshold by 0.06 m3/m3; reserved water directed to mitigate yield loss." } }, { "input": { "portfolio_id": "PORT-CA-2024", "parcels": [ { "parcel_id": "P-03", "crop": "almond", "acres": 120, "moisture_threshold": 0.25, "current_layer1_moisture": null } ], "available_reserve_m3": 5000 }, "expected_output": { "portfolio_id": "PORT-CA-2024", "deficit_detected": false, "allocations": [], "contingency_summary": "Incomplete moisture data for parcel P-03; contingency plan halted pending valid telemetry." } } ] ```

Simulates water allocation suggestions only. No physical control systems or commercial irrigation gates are actuated. Use mock external writes. Require human review before any real deployment.

Rules

Participation guide

Simulates water allocation suggestions only. No physical control systems or commercial irrigation gates are actuated. Use mock external writes and human review.

Delivery guide

How work is evaluated

Evaluation

Calculates volumetric soil moisture anomaly scores for each parcel relative to baseline historical norms. Produces a deterministic irrigation rationing priority table ranking crops by drought susceptibility. Outputs contingency recommendations flagged for agronomist approval without automated operational execution.

Submission format

Runnable source, pinned dependencies, setup commands, working interface, example outputs, recorded demo, tests, and action logs.

Datasets

Challenge datasets

Public datasets, plus the private datasets you have access to.

Evaluation rubric

How submissions are scored

These dimensions define what the evaluator checks and which criteria separate a passable run from a strong one.

Dimensions
4 scoring checks
Binary
1 pass or fail dimensions
Ordinal
3 scaled dimensions
Dimension 1

Complete workflow

Ingest crop portfolio parcel acreage, crop water thresholds, and baseline yield valuations. Retrieve ERA5 soil moisture layer indicators across target growing months via CDS API queries. Calculate parcel-level soil moisture deficit anomalies against 10-year baseline historical quantiles. Generate a prioritized irrigation allocation plan and crop contingency schedule for human sign-off.

Score scale
012
Score 0

Missing or incorrect.

Score 1

Partly complete, with documented gaps.

Score 2

Complete, with reproducible evidence.

Dimension 2

Correctness and evidence

Calculates volumetric soil moisture anomaly scores for each parcel relative to baseline historical norms. Produces a deterministic irrigation rationing priority table ranking crops by drought susceptibility. Outputs contingency recommendations flagged for agronomist approval without automated operational execution.

Score scale
012
Score 0

Missing or incorrect.

Score 1

Partly complete, with documented gaps.

Score 2

Complete, with reproducible evidence.

Dimension 3

Review interface

Streamlit operational dashboard displaying parcel risk rankings, soil moisture anomaly plots, and editable irrigation contingency tables.

Score scale
012
Score 0

Missing or incorrect.

Score 1

Partly complete, with documented gaps.

Score 2

Complete, with reproducible evidence.

Dimension 4

Safe execution

Simulates water allocation suggestions only. No physical control systems or commercial irrigation gates are actuated.

Binary check

This dimension contributes its full weight only when the submission satisfies the requirement. Partial credit is not awarded.

Learning goals

What you should walk away with

  • Ingest crop portfolio parcel acreage, crop water thresholds, and baseline yield valuations.

  • Retrieve ERA5 soil moisture layer indicators across target growing months via CDS API queries.

  • Calculate parcel-level soil moisture deficit anomalies against 10-year baseline historical quantiles.

  • Generate a prioritized irrigation allocation plan and crop contingency schedule for human sign-off.

Resources and assets

Reference links and supporting material

Dataset notes

Execute ECMWF CDS API client calls with local mock fallback fixtures storing reanalysis-era5-single-levels volumetric soil water layer parameters. Supplied starter examples are synthetic, not source extracts.

Challenge setup

Configuration summary for this challenge.

Challenge input

Input details are not configured.

Pydantic AI

Typed Python agent framework.

Evaluated output

No output checks are configured.

Evaluation checks
  • Ingest crop portfolio parcel acreage, crop water thresholds, and baseline yield valuations. Retrieve ERA5 s...
  • Calculates volumetric soil moisture anomaly scores for each parcel relative to baseline historical norms. P...
  • Streamlit operational dashboard displaying parcel risk rankings, soil moisture anomaly plots, and editable...
Configured evaluation evidence
  • 2 public reference cases
Configured runtime
  • 2 configured tools

Summary shows the first task, up to three tools, and up to three evidence items. Open the technical recipe to view all configured items.

View technical recipe

Configured tools

Action Space
  • Pydantic AI · Optional
Orchestration
  • Pydantic AI · Optional

Evaluation contract

  • Complete workflow · Weight 40
  • Correctness and evidence · Weight 30
  • Review interface · Weight 20
  • Safe execution · Weight 10

Reference cases

  • 2 public reference cases

Workflow tasks

No workflow tasks are configured.

Recipe freeze marker

No recipe freeze time is recorded.

Frequently Asked Questions about Build a Crop Portfolio Drought Contingency Allocator