Showing posts with label smart irrigation month. Show all posts
Showing posts with label smart irrigation month. Show all posts

Thursday, July 30, 2015

The Four Elements of Smart Irrigation

If you work in water you know that July is smart irrigation month. If you don’t work in water perhaps you stumbled onto something about it online or in the media if your local water utility is a savvy marketer. 
Why July? 
Traditionally, the numbers indicate that outdoor water-use peaks in July. And if data also indicates that 50% of water applied to landscapes is lost to inefficiency, then we might also conclude that outdoor water waste spikes in July as well.

How many bath tubs?! A Ewing Irrigation infographic

The Four Elements 

Here at IrriGator we know a good educational/marketing opportunity when we see one. So in the run up to this month we set about unpacking the smart irrigation concept. In irrigation the term is usually used to describe a device or technology, but the practice of watering wisely encompasses much more. Here, then, are the four elements of smart irrigation as interpreted by UF/IFAS experts Gail Hansen, Michael Dukes and Kati Migliaccio.




Meanwhile In the Community
While we were busy contributing to the wealth of smart irrigation content online, there were plenty of workshops and events around Florida to inform the public in person. Some of which included:


Further, the main UF campus saw the inauguration of a new trial for the Smartirrigation urban lawn app in North Florida. 

The study site for this trial includes a host of smart technology and will generate additional useful data on the water saving potential of these devices.

Closing Big
I would be remiss if I failed to mention the smart irrigation efforts of Miami-Dade’s Urban Conservation Unit. The South Florida-based group saved the best for last in July with an informative video polling a variety of industry and academic experts on how each defines smart irrigation. The answers may surprise you.


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Monday, July 14, 2014

Applying science to water savings: smart irrigation month 2014

In late June I had the opportunity to join Miami-Dade’s Urban Conservation Unit (U.C.U.) for a day in the field visiting properties participating in Miami-Dade County’s Irrigation Rebate Program.

Front yard turf zone, circa 2011
Playing the classics
The final visit for the day was a home in Coral Gables, the City Beautiful. In 2011, this residence had rehabilitated its potable water irrigation system and installed a weather-based irrigation controller (WBIC). With a landscape that features mostly palms, shrubs and decorative stones, a seven zone irrigation system has no business at this location. In any case, the controller installation was rebated in 2011 and the homeowner asked the team to stop by to see if things were still on the up and up.

No longer on the up and up: Jesus Lomeli and a riser nozzle gone missing
A bit about WBICs
Once we realized where we were, U.C.U. tech Jesus and I had eyes big as saucers. Why? Two words: applied science. Weather-based irrigation controllers require very specific programming for each zone:
  • soil type
  • plant type
  • shade factor
  • sprinkler head type, etc.
All those factors are churning away in this little guy right here
The WBIC model at this location uses these factors along with weather data from an on-site weather sensor/tipping bucket rain gauge to calculate evapotranspiration (or ET). This ET value is then used to generate run times for each zone. When a landscape is designed with hydrozones in mind, much like this one with one turf zone and six tree or shrub zones, a weather-based controller can really work its magic.

Weather sensor: perfectly located and busy doing science 
So after a quick zone by zone wet-check to look for breaks or other problems, we dove into the controller’s “history” feature to track the watering events by date starting from January of this year.

#SIM2014
Smart irrigation month is an industry-fostered construct that promotes outdoor water-use efficiency during the month of July, the outdoor water-use peak in the calendar year. The Irrigation Association recommends a plethora of practices from design to technology that, if implemented, can reduce water-use while still maintaining a healthy landscape.

Tree canopy shade is real: front yard turf zone in 2014
Better living through tech
In the best of all possible worlds the property I'm discussing here would have no (or temporary) irrigation. There would be a colorful Florida-friendly groundcover in the shady front area, and all the remaining ornamental areas would continue to live off rain alone. 

Back yard rocky expanse: wait, what...
In this world, however, the weather-based controller was expertly managing water-use for this landscape – irrigating the lone turf zone regularly, and watering the other zones once a month, or once every few months. During especially rainy stretches, the system would not run for weeks. 

Some water-wise options from Ewing Irrigation
The takeaway
There is definitely room for improvement at this location - namely low-volume irrigation in the six tree/shrub zones - but the best decision this homeowner ever made for the landscape (and water bill) was installing a WBIC three years ago. This wasn't the first time Jesus and I had seen a weather-based controller save water this way, but it's the most recent, and on the cusp of smart irrigation month 2014, all the sweeter.
About the author: 
Michael Gutierrez is a water resources 
technician with UF/IFAS in the Ag & Bio 
Engineering Dept. He tweets, blogs and 
also shoots still and video media in South 
Florida, Gainesville and anywhere else a 
camera is handy. (image: Martha Golea)



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