Automated irrigation systems using plant and soil sensors

In Arizona and across the U.S. water demands are rising and costs are increasing. In addition, greater political and social pressures are affecting water users from both quantity and quality aspects. Thus many factors are contributing to the need for better water management criteria and techniques, especially for irrigated agriculture. The general purpose of this project is to develop and utilize sensor systems which will aid irrigators in determining when to irrigate and how much water to apply. These two questions should be answered before every irrigation. Thus, the sensor systems must provide irrigation managers with information on crop water status, crop water use and soil water status on a continuous basis. The specific objective is to develop an automatic irrigation control system using crop water stress to determine when to irrigate and soil water status to determine how much to apply.