1.0 INTRODUCTION 
70 
Mapping is now widely considered an important tool to explain and display the results obtained 
from experiments. Furthermore in ecological studies thematic maps are the main results of spa 
tial analysis and evaluation within a GIS to understand complex relationships. Within the re 
search network on agroecosystems FAM (Forschungsverbund Agrarôkosysteme München) 
maps are used to visualize and analyze the ecological effects of two different management 
practices: integrated farming and organic farming. 1 
FAM is a cooperation between the Technical University of Munich at Weihenstephan and the 
GSF-Research Centre for Environment and Health at Neuherberg. To carry out the experiments 
a 143 ha farmland (Experimental Farm Scheyem), located about 40 km north of Munich was 
rented for 15 years. About 100 people are involved in 49 subprojects. The integrated evaluation 
of field measurements requires a good data transfer between the scientists. As they do not work 
all together on one campus, but at three different places, a network connection, a central FAM 
database and GIS were established. 
Figure 1 explains the structure. The Survey Institute of the TUM provides the basic data doing 
surveys of the farmland and photogrammetric studies. Scientists of the Institute of Landscape 
Ecology (LÔK) build a GIS and represent the administration unit for the GIS. They visualize 
data if requested by FAM coworkers. Institutes which are carrying out spatial analysis as well 
import the coverages from the GIS administration unit. Also modellers are using the common 
GIS database for further analysis. 
2.0 FAM 
FAM scientists 
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Figure 1: Structure within FAM concerning GIS activities 
http://www.edv.agrar.tu-muenchen.de/fam/hello fam.html