How could sensor networks help with agricultural water management issues? Optimizing irrigation scheduling through networked soil-moisture sensors

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Rivers ◽  
Neil Coles ◽  
Huma Zia ◽  
Nick R. Harris ◽  
Richard Yates
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Sensor Networks ◽  
Irrigation Scheduling ◽  
Agricultural Water ◽  
Agricultural Water Management ◽  
Soil Moisture Sensors ◽  
Management Issues

Field scale root zone soil moisture estimation by coupling cosmic-ray neutron sensor with soil moisture sensors

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hami Said ◽  
Georg Weltin ◽  
Lee Kheng Heng ◽  
Trenton Franz ◽  
Emil Fulajtar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Root Zone ◽  
Cosmic Ray ◽  
Agricultural Water ◽  
Field Scale ◽  
Agricultural Water Management ◽  
Soil Moisture Sensors ◽  
Major Disadvantage ◽  
Filter Approach

<p>Since it has become clear that climate change is having a major impact on water availability for agriculture and crop productivity, an accurate estimation of field-scale root-zone soil moisture (RZSM) is essential for improved agricultural water management. The Cosmic Ray Neutron Sensor (CRNS) has recently been used for field-scale soil moisture (SM) monitoring in large areas and is a credible and robust technique. Like other remote or proximal sensing techniques, the CRNS provides only SM data in the near surface. One of the challenges and needs is to extend the vertical footprint of the CRNS to the root zone of major crops. This can be achieved by coupling the CRNS measurements with conventional methods for soil moisture measurements, which provide information on soil moisture for whole rooting depth.</p><p>The objective of this poster presentation is to estimate field-scale RZSM by correlating the CRNS information with that from soil moisture sensors that provide soil moisture data for the whole root depth. In this study, the Drill and Drop probes which provide continuous profile soil moisture were selected. The RZSM estimate was calculated using an exponential filter approach.</p><p>Winter Wheat cropped fields in Rutzendorf, Marchfeld region (Austria) were instrumented with a CRNS and Drill & Drop probes. An exponential filter approach was applied on the CRNS and Drill and drop sensor data to characterize the RZSM. The preliminary results indicate the ability of the merging framework procedure to improve field-scale RZSM in real-time. This study demonstrated how to combine the advantages of CRNS nuclear technique (especially the large footprint and good representativeness of obtained data) with the advantages of conventional methods (providing data for whole soil profile) and overcome the shortcoming of both methods (the lack of information in the deeper part of soil profile being the major disadvantage of CRNS and the spatial limitation and low representativeness of point data being the major disadvantage of conventional capacitance sensors). This approach can be very helpful for improving agricultural water management.</p>

scholarly journals Effects of Surface Heterogeneity Due to Drip Irrigation on Scintillometer Estimates of Sensible, Latent Heat Fluxes and Evapotranspiration over Vineyards

Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 81
Author(s):  
Hatim M. E. Geli ◽  
José González-Piqueras ◽  
Christopher M. U. Neale ◽  
Claudio Balbontín ◽  
Isidro Campos ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Surface Heterogeneity ◽  
Irrigation Scheduling ◽  
Heat Fluxes ◽  
Source Surface ◽  
Agricultural Water ◽  
Agricultural Water Management ◽  
Vegetation Growth ◽  
Growth Variability

Accurate estimates of sensible (H) and latent (LE) heat fluxes and actual evapotranspiration (ET) are required for monitoring vegetation growth and improved agricultural water management. A large aperture scintillometer (LAS) was used to provide these estimates with the objective of quantifying the effects of surface heterogeneity due to soil moisture and vegetation growth variability. The study was conducted over drip-irrigated vineyards located in a semi-arid region in Albacete, Spain during summer 2007. Surface heterogeneity was characterized by integrating eddy covariance (EC) observations of H, LE and ET; land surface temperature (LST) and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) data from Landsat and MODIS sensors; LST from an infrared thermometer (IRT); a data fusion model; and a two-source surface energy balance model. The EC observations showed 16% lack of closure during unstable atmospheric conditions and was corrected using the residual method. The comparison between the LAS and EC measurements of H, LE, and ET showed root mean square difference (RMSD) of 25 W m−2, 19 W m−2, and 0.41 mm day−1, respectively. LAS overestimated H and underestimated both LE and ET by 24 W m−2, 34 W m−2, and 0.36 mm day−1, respectively. The effects of soil moisture on LAS measurement of H was evaluated using the Bowen ratio, β. Discrepancies between HLAS and HEC were higher at β ≤ 0.5 but improved at 1 ≥ β > 0.5 and β > 1.0 with R2 of 0.76, 0.78, and 0.82, respectively. Variable vineyard growth affected LAS performance as its footprints saw lower NDVILAS compared to that of the EC (NDVIEC) by ~0.022. Surface heterogeneity increased during wetter periods, as characterized by the LST–NDVI space and temperature vegetation dryness index (TVDI). As TVDI increased (decreased) during drier (wetter) conditions, the discrepancies between HLAS and HEC, as well as LELAS and LEEC Re decreased (increased). Thresholds of TVDI of 0.3, 0.25, and 0.5 were identified, above which better agreements between LAS and EC estimates of H, LE, and ET, respectively, were obtained. These findings highlight the effectiveness and ability of LAS in monitoring vegetation growth over heterogonous areas with variable soil moisture, its potential use in supporting irrigation scheduling and agricultural water management over large regions.

scholarly journals Crop Modeling Applications in Agricultural Water Management

2017 ◽  
Vol 60 (6) ◽  
pp. 1959-1964 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isaya Kisekka ◽  
Kendall C. DeJonge ◽  
Liwang Ma ◽  
Joel Paz ◽  
Kyle Douglas-Mankin
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Irrigation Management ◽  
Climate Impact ◽  
Irrigation Scheduling ◽  
Groundwater Depletion ◽  
Crop Modeling ◽  
Agricultural Water ◽  
Agricultural Water Management ◽  
Crop Models ◽  
Introductory Article

Abstract. This article introduces the fourteen articles that comprise the “Crop Modeling and Decision Support for Optimizing Use of Limited Water” collection. This collection was developed from a special session on crop modeling applications in agricultural water management held at the 2016 ASABE Annual International Meeting (AIM) in Orlando, Florida. In addition, other authors who were not able to attend the 2016 ASABE AIM were also invited to submit papers. The articles summarized in this introductory article demonstrate a wide array of applications in which crop models can be used to optimize agricultural water management. The following section titles indicate the topics covered in this collection: (1) evapotranspiration modeling (one article), (2) model development and parameterization (two articles), (3) application of crop models for irrigation scheduling (five articles), (4) coordinated water and nutrient management (one article), (5) soil water management (two articles), (6) risk assessment of water-limited irrigation management (one article), and (7) regional assessments of climate impact (two articles). Changing weather and climate, increasing population, and groundwater depletion will continue to stimulate innovations in agricultural water management, and crop models will play an important role in helping to optimize water use in agriculture. Keywords: Agricultural water management, Crop modeling, Evapotranspiration, Irrigation, Irrigation scheduling.

scholarly journals Performance of Soil Moisture Sensors in Florida Sandy Soils

Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 358 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rhuanito Soranz Ferrarezi ◽  
Thiago Assis Rodrigues Nogueira ◽  
Sara Gabriela Cornejo Zepeda
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Water Content ◽  
Sandy Soils ◽  
Irrigation Scheduling ◽  
Management Efficiency ◽  
Soil Moisture Sensors ◽  
Citrus Production ◽  
Gravimetric Water Content ◽  
Calibration Equations

Soil moisture sensors can improve water management efficiency by measuring soil volumetric water content (θv) in real time. Soil-specific calibration equations used to calculate θv can increase sensor accuracy. A laboratory study was conducted to evaluate the performance of several commercial sensors and to establish soil-specific calibration equations for different soil types. We tested five Florida sandy soils used for citrus production (Pineda, Riviera, Astatula, Candler, and Immokalee) divided into two depths (0.0–0.3 and 0.3–0.6 m). Readings were taken using twelve commercial sensors (CS650, CS616, CS655 (Campbell Scientific), GS3, 10HS, 5TE, GS1 (Meter), TDT-ACC-SEN-SDI, TDR315, TDR315S, TDR135L (Acclima), and Hydra Probe (Stevens)) connected to a datalogger (CR1000X; Campbell Scientific). Known amounts of water were added incrementally to obtain a broad range of θv. Small 450 cm3 samples were taken to determine the gravimetric water content and calculate the θv used to obtain the soil-specific calibration equations. Results indicated that factory-supplied calibration equations performed well for some sensors in sandy soils, especially 5TE, TDR315L, and GS1 (R2 = 0.92) but not for others (10HS, GS3, and Hydra Probe). Soil-specific calibrations from this study resulted in accuracy expressed as root mean square error (RMSE) ranging from 0.018 to 0.030 m3 m−3 for 5TE, CS616, CS650, CS655, GS1, Hydra Probe, TDR310S, TDR315, TDR315L, and TDT-ACC-SEN-SDI, while lower accuracies were found for 10HS (0.129 m3 m−3) and GS3 (0.054 m3 m−3). This study provided soil-specific calibration equations to increase the accuracy of commercial soil moisture sensors to facilitate irrigation scheduling and water management in Florida sandy soils used for citrus production.

High-resolution soil moisture mapping through the use of Cosmic-Ray Neutron Sensor and Sentinel-1 data for temperate and semi-arid environments

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hami Said ◽  
Modou Mbaye ◽  
Lee Kheng Heng ◽  
Emil Fulajtar ◽  
Georg Weltin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Remote Sensing ◽  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Cosmic Ray ◽  
Microwave Remote Sensing ◽  
Nuclear Technology ◽  
Agricultural Water ◽  
Agricultural Water Management ◽  
Semi Arid

<p>Global climate change has a major impact on the availability of water in agriculture. Sustainable agricultural productivity to ensure food security requires good agricultural water management.</p><p>Soil moisture is one of the important variables in irrigation management, and there are many different techniques for estimating it at different scales, from point to landscape scales.</p><p>Cosmic-Ray Neutron Sensor (CRNS) technology has the capability to estimate field-scale soil moisture (SM) in large areas of up to 20 to 30 ha and has demonstrated its ability to support agricultural water management and hydrology studies. However, measurement of soil moisture on a global or regional scale can only be achieved from satellite remote sensing.</p><p>Recently, active microwave remote sensing Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imaging from Sentinel-1 shows great potential for high spatial resolution soil moisture monitoring and can be the basis for producing soil moisture maps. However, these maps can be only used after calibration. Such calibration can be done through traditional, point soil moisture sampling or measurement, which is time-consuming and costly. CRNS technology can be used for calibration and validation remote sensing imagery predictions at field and area-wide level.</p><p>In this study a conversion model to retrieve soil moisture from Sentinel-1 (SAR) was developed using the VV (vertical-vertical) polarization, which is highly sensitive to soil moisture, and then calibrated and validated using CRNS data from temperate (Austria) and semi-arid (Kuwait) Environments. This study is a major step in the monitoring of soil moisture at high spatial and temporal resolution by combining remote sensing and the CRNS based nuclear technology. The preliminary results show the great potential of using nuclear technology such as CRNS for remote sensing calibration of Sentinel-1 (SAR).</p>

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