Tuesday, October 31, 2017

Looking Ahead: Irrigation Show and Education Conference 2017

Next week irrigation industry professionals from all walks will descend on Orlando, FL, for Irrigation Show and Education Conference 2017. The largest irrigation-focused event of the calendar year, it is as advertised, part product expo (everything you can imagine and more) and part conference - academic presentations, training seminars and certification courses/exams. Best of all for our UF-ABE researchers specializing in irrigation, it’s only a 2 hour drive away.


Research Showcase
UF-ABE research will be featured in both the agriculture and landscape sessions of the Technical Program at Irrigation Show. PhD candidate Maria Zamora is presenting an overview of irrigation and nutrient best management practices in corn. Research associate Bernard Cardenas will discuss recent work pertaining to the EPA WaterSense pressure regulating spray sprinkler body specification. 

Dr. Michael Dukes will focus on finds from a multi-year Orange County (FL)-based smart irrigation technology study. And Dr. Kati Migliaccio is presenting on rainfall data resources for use in Florida.

E3 Learners
Once again this year I’ll be collaborating with the Irrigation Foundation on digital content. We hope to shine a light on the E3 Learners Program, which selects students from across the country to attend the Irrigation Show, complete coursework and network with established industry pros. This year’s Learner class is comprised of 30 students from 17 different states! Young people are the future of the industry, and the Irrigation Foundation is doing their best to welcome them into the fold.
I’ll also be live tweeting throughout show week. Catch me @IrriGatorUF and follow/tweet along with all the show goings-on at #IrrigationShow.

See you there?
If Irrigation Show 2017 can draw even a sliver of Florida’s sizable green industry/water sector it will be another successful event. If you’re reading this locally/regionally and you’re not sure about making the trek to Orlando this November, take Dr. Dukes' advice: “Just do it! Especially if you are in Florida - this is a great opportunity close to home to see the latest and greatest in irrigation products and tech! It won’t be back for at least several years.”
Hear Bringing Water To Life Podcast's Irrigation Show episode:
Listen to "Episode 39 - 2017 Irrigation Show Preview" on Spreaker.
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Tuesday, October 17, 2017

A WaterSmart Innovations 2017 Report Back

By Michael Dukes

WaterSmart Innovations is a can’t miss meeting for me because it is the single meeting of the many meetings I attend annually that focuses on water conservation. For me that means irrigation water conservation, but the meeting also covers indoor water conservation. It’s a good chance to let people know some of our latest results and to learn what types of research and implementation is happening with regard to irrigation water conservation in other areas of the country.
Given our proximity to the tragedy on the Las Vegas strip there was a somber feeling and mood to the beginning of formal sessions. We observed a moment of silence for respect to the victims. Doug Bennett, program chair, sent out a message regarding the tragedy. To sum it up he encouraged us to carry on in our small way to make the world a better place.
In the Audience
I chose sessions related to irrigation water-use; specifically about reducing peak demand through the use of smart controllers, education and or landscape modification. These are all topics we work on and I wanted to see the latest implementation from across the country. It’s noteworthy that smart controllers are no longer new and niche products. They are being implemented widely across the U.S. and many people are familiar at least in general what they are. Just a few years ago they were “new” and we had to explain what they were to people.

At the Podium
I was also tasked with presenting our work on the pressure regulating spray head (PRB) testing that was used by the EPA WaterSense program to develop their new spray sprinkler body specification. I feel it went well considering it was laden with technical details (I tried to trim as much as possible, but it’s a technical subject at the end of the day) and may have been boring to some non-tech folks. 
I got a number of technical questions and as a follow up met with some folks from California (CA). The CA Energy Commission is researching appliances for energy efficiency and water efficiency is directly related. In the near future (2019) they will have requirements for PRBs. I understand that non-PRBs will not be sold in CA after some transition date in the future. We may have the opportunity to do some more PRB testing in the lab to answer some of their questions. In fact a project proposal is currently being prepared!
Take Away
There were many good talks. Personally I was very interested in the talk by Joanna Endter-Wada about extension working with utilities in Utah to provide water consumption information to consumers. By understanding their detailed seasonal irrigation patterns and delivering targeted educational messages, they were able to significantly reduce over-irrigation. Excellent example of extension impacting stakeholders!

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Tuesday, October 3, 2017

Researching Water Conservation Strategies with Dr. Mackenzie Boyer

This past summer Mackenzie Boyer successfully defended her PhD thesis and completed her work at UF-ABE. Dr. Boyer was the rare graduate student who returned to school following a stint in the professional world as a consulting engineer. As part of the Dukes research team she published the first journal article documenting water-savings in Florida-Friendly Landscape-certified (FFL) homes. Her work assessing effectiveness of outdoor watering restrictions in Florida was also novel terrain. On her most recent visit to Florida, Dr. Boyer agreed to speak with IrriGator about her research and more.

Dr. Mackenzie Boyer on defense day
What was the focus of your PhD research?
MB: The focus has been studying watering billing records to determine people’s irrigation habits in the Tampa Bay Water region (the SWFWMD area) trying to understand individual customer use for irrigation and then to also understand customer responses to irrigation conservation measures. So looking historically at how well the Florida-Friendly Landscaping Program has done, and how well water restrictions have done and then also projecting into the future how well could a utility do if they were to adopt different conservation strategies.

You came back to graduate school from the professional world. How do you feel this informed your perspective as a student?
MB: The first part of my career focused a lot more on the smaller details of water treatment and water system designs, but what was missing was more of the planning aspect – the big picture. I recognized what was missing in the work that I was doing with water and that’s one of the reasons why I went back to school. A great thing about this project is that we’re working directly with Tampa Bay Water and SWFWMD and the utilities. I feel like we’re impacting the supply side of water more so with our research now.

Dr. Boyer's area of focus in Florida
You recently relocated from Florida to Arizona. Do you get a sense that people relate to water differently out West?
MB: They do relate to it differently. Xeriscapes are much more popular there than FFL is here. But there are still a lot of homeowners that have turfgrass in the desert where you need to put 7 or 8 feet of water on your landscape during the course of the year. I think there is an appreciation of the amount of water that goes into a landscape in that alternative landscapes are accepted at a much larger scale. But for the people who choose to have turfgrass there isn’t the concern about water conservation or the right ways to irrigate your landscape.

The Dukes program tends to attract and develop really skilled water researchers. Do you have any insight as to why?
MB: This is a very important problem in residential water use. 50% of the potable water that goes to homes in the US ends up on people’s landscapes. This is a large area of potential conservation and the research that this group is doing can address an immediate need for better ways to conserve our potable water.

Dr. Mackenzie Boyer circa 2013

 Currently you are prioritizing raising your family, but looking ahead to when you return to the work force how would you describe your ideal job?
MB: I hope to work in some area of academia or some area where I’m working directly with utilities. I’d really like to be helping inform utilities on their customers’ irrigation use and methods of conservation that would be applicable to their customers. The type of work that I did using water billing records, a lot of utilities are doing. There is a growing amount of data available to utilities and trying to help them to use that data to affect their water demand would be ideal.

There seems to be a lot of interesting work being done at Arizona State University and some of the cities like the city of Phoenix and the City of Scottsdale. Hopefully I can join some of their work and be able to contribute to it. 

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