A systems engineering approach for precision irrigation

人口增长和不利的气候变化正在加剧全球淡水短缺。由于灌溉消耗大量的淡水，因此提高灌溉效率非常重要。众所周知，如果灌溉者更有效地利用水，那么将有更多的水用于环境用途和城市。根据阿尔伯塔灌溉公司的数据，在阿尔伯塔省，即使只节省1%的灌溉用水，每年也会节省约2300万立方米的水。在提高灌溉水利用效率的各种途径中，一个重要的途径是将灌溉控制系统闭环，实现闭环灌溉。从系统工程的角度来看，目前的灌溉用水（包括草坪灌溉和农业灌溉）主要是在开环条件下进行的。在闭环灌溉中，基于由测量的土壤含水量、蒸散率和其他在线传感器组成的实时田间反馈信号来确定供应到田间的水量。初步研究表明，闭环运行 ** 可显著节约用水。在这个项目中，我们与InteliRain合作开发自适应闭环灌溉算法，以改善灌溉水管理，可用于草坪和农业灌溉。预计该算法将显著提高灌溉用水效率，并显著节约用水。

The increasing population and adverse climate change are escalating fresh water scarcity globally. Since irrigation consumes a large portion of fresh water, it is important to improve the efficiency in irrigation. It is well recognized that if irrigators made more efficient use of water then there would be more water for environmental uses and for cities. According to Alberta Irrigation, in the province of Alberta even a saving of as small as 1% irrigated water would result in savings of about 23 million cubic meters of water each year.**Among different approaches to improve the water usage efficiency in irrigation, one important approach is to close the loop in irrigation control systems to have closed-loop irrigation. From a systems engineering perspective, the current water usage in the irrigation (including lawn irrigation and agriculture irrigation) is primarily performed under open-loop conditions. In closed-loop irrigation, the amount of water supplied to the field is determined based on real-time field feedback signals comprising of measured soil water content, evapotranspiration rate and other on-line sensors. Preliminary studies have shown that closed-loop operation**can lead to a significant saving of water. In this project, we collaborate with InteliRain to develop adaptive closed-loop irrigation algorithms for improved irrigation water management that can be used in both lawn and agriculture irrigation. It is expected that the algorithms will significantly increase the water usage efficiency in irrigation and lead to significant water conservation.