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ARS Home » Plains Area » Bushland, Texas » Conservation and Production Research Laboratory » Soil and Water Management Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #409487
Research Project: Dryland and Irrigated Crop Management Under Limited Water Availability and Drought

Location: Soil and Water Management Research

Title: A sensor-based decision support system for variable rate irrigation systems

Author
item ANDRADE, MANUEL - University Of Nevada
item Oshaughnessy, Susan
item Evett, Steven - Steve
item KISEKKA, ISAYA - University Of California, Davis

Submitted to: Irrigation Today
Publication Type: Trade Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/12/2023
Publication Date: 11/19/2023
Citation: Andrade, M.A., Oshaughnessy, S.A., Evett, S.R., Kisekka, I. 2023. A sensor-based decision support system for variable rate irrigation systems. Irrigation Today. 8(2):30-32. https://irrigationtoday.org/features/a-sensor-based-decision-support-system-for-variable-rate-irrigation-systems/.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Irrigated agriculture is threatened by increasing water demands from a growing population, competing sectors, diminishing aquifers, recurring droughts, and the effects of a changing climate. The commercial availability of Variable Rate Irrigation (VRI) technology for self-propelled sprinkler irrigation systems gives farmers access to unprecedented control of the irrigation water applied to their fields. Unlike conventional irrigation systems, which are designed with the objective of achieving a uniform irrigation, VRI systems can apply variable amounts of water to specific areas in a field. The ARS patented Irrigation Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (ISSCADA) system uses a software, named ARSPivot, to achieve a seamless integration of onboard and in-situ sensor network systems that can estimate crop water requirements of different areas of a field. This enables site-specific irrigation to improve water management by allowing water to be applied in the right amount, right time and at the right location. However, the ISSCADA system only supports center pivot sprinklers from a single manufacturer. A three-year research project awarded by the USDA-National Institute of Food Agriculture’s Engineering for Precision Crop and Water Management program to the University of Nevada at Reno, University of California, Davis, and ARS-Bushland was initiated in the summer of 2023 to develop a new version of software that is compatible with linear move systems and any manufacturer of moving sprinklers. The new version of ARSPivot will also incorporate a crop water use and yield model and be available as an open-source software.