The Summer 2019 edition of The Irrigation Australia Journal includes a Smart Irrigation feature, and we were honoured to contribute. The focus of this feature is to look at the application of digital technology to irrigation.
The Piara Waters complex is a challenging site to manage, however significant potential water savings were able to be identified. We found there was potential to save over 20% in water which led to an estimated 40% reduction in drainage of irrigation water beyond the rootzone. Having data collated from different sources (flow meters, soil moisture probes, satellite imagery, climatic data, and forecast and actual weather) available in one place for analysis and translation into actionable information were identified as key benefits.
Without proper scheduling tools, irrigators – erring on the side of caution – typically overestimate water requirements by 20%. Lightning Park comes with specific turf management considerations, which make optimisation of irrigation applications even more challenging. SWAN Systems was used for retrospective analysis of the previous year's irrigation. In total, it was discovered that watering was 10% over budget for the 2017/18 irrigation season. SWAN Systems is now helping to facilitate improved management of soil moisture, turf condition and water allocation.
SWAN Systems was used to review leaching estimates and soil moisture status and identified that significant water and nutrient savings were possible. It was found water applications could be reduced by 30%, with a concomitant reduction in energy use.
A number of pilot projects using SWAN Systems have been conducted throughout Australia. These include trials in the agricultural, horticultural, golf and public open space sectors. The trials in public open space have been featured in the Autumn Edition of The Overflow magazine. Case studies from the golf, agricultural and horticultural sectors will soon be featured on our blog. Thanks to all our trial participants for their support!
This article describes two exciting new features of SWAN that will make it the “go-to” system to manage your irrigation setup. Before we go any further though, a quick review of the SWAN Systems irrigation module and what it does.
In the age of so-called ‘”Big Data”, councils like the City of South Perth have access to enormous amounts of data from flow meters, soil moisture probes, weather stations and weather forecasts, but how can they make sense of this tidal wave of information?
