A systems engineering approach for precision irrigation

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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 operationcan 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.