Development of an Internet of Things (IoT) System for Measuring Agricultural Runoff Quantity and Quality

Abstract

Runoff is an important component of the water balance of agricultural fields. Accurate measurement or estimation of agricultural runoff is important due to its potential impact on water quantity and quality. Since runoff from agricultural fields is sporadic and is often associated with irrigation and/or intense rainfall events, manually measuring runoff and collecting water samples for water quality analysis during runoff events is inconvenient and impractical. In the fall of 2017, a field site was selected at the Clemson University Edisto Research and Education Center with the objective of developing, constructing, and testing an Internet of things (IoT) flume system to automatically measure runoff and collect water samples. In 2018, an automatic IoT system was developed and installed consisting of six stainless steel H-flumes (22.9-cm), which measured runoff from six adjacent research plots under two different cultural regimes (cover crop and no cover crop). An electronic eTape sensor was installed in the flume and used to measure the water level or the flume's head. Open-source electronic (Arduino) devices and a cloud-based platform were then used to create a wireless sensor network and IoT system to automatically record the amount of runoff (hydrograph) coming from each section, collect water samples and transmit the data to a Cloud server (Thingspeak.com) where the data can be viewed remotely in real-time. The IoT flume system has been operating successfully and reliably for more than two years.

Application of Big Data Technology to Promote Agricultural Structure Adjustment and High-Quality Development of Modern Agriculture

“…The use and construction of large digital changes for the countryside. Zero people think that deep learning technology is very important for remote sensing data processing, especially in the era of remote sensing big data processing [ 14 ]. Deep learning technology will become the most advanced biological remote sensing technology.…”

An Effective and Affordable Internet of Things (IoT) Scale System to Measure Crop Water Use

“…ThingSpeak.com is an IoT analytics platform service that allows users to aggregate, visualize, and analyze live data streams in the Cloud. We selected ThingSpeak.com because we had already used this service for previous applications [42][43][44][45], we were familiar with it, and it offered all the needed features. Other researchers, such as [30,40], also used ThingsSpeak.com.…”

“…For example, we designed three IoT systems for soil moisture monitoring [42][43][44] to assist growers in making more accurate and timely irrigation scheduling decisions based on real-time sensor data. Similarly, our team developed another IoT system to monitor agricultural runoff and collect water-quality samples from an agricultural field [45]. Therefore, building on our previous experience, this study aimed to create an affordable Internet of Things (IoT) scale system to measure crop ET.…”

Low-cost ultrasonic sensors for in-field experimentation data collection

“…Knowing the runoff before reaching the rivers is essential to predict the results of major rainfall events in advance. Payero et al (2021) used the Internet of Things (IoT) to develop a surface runoff measurement system utilizing H flumes and eTape liquid level sensor, including a water collection system for analyzing the impacts of runoff in soybean and cotton fields with and without coverages and obtained an R 2 = 0.99 with the calibration. Schallner et al (2021) monitored runoff using low-cost UBeTube technology and concluded that the methodology, with proper calibration, could be used in pastures.…”