Robust Soil Water Potential Sensor to Optimize Irrigation in Agriculture

Abstract

Extreme weather phenomena are on the rise due to ongoing climate change. Therefore, the need for irrigation in agriculture will increase, although it is already the largest consumer of water, a valuable resource. Soil moisture sensors can help to use water efficiently and economically. For this reason, we have recently presented a novel soil moisture sensor with a high sensitivity and broad measuring range. This device does not measure the moisture in the soil but the water available to plants, i.e., the soil water potential (SWP). The sensor consists of two highly porous (>69%) ceramic discs with a broad pore size distribution (0.5 to 200 μm) and a new circuit board system using a transmission line within a time-domain transmission (TDT) circuit. This detects the change in the dielectric response of the ceramic discs with changing water uptake. To prove the concept, a large number of field tests were carried out and comparisons were made with commercial soil water potential sensors. The experiments confirm that the sensor signal is correlated to the soil water potential irrespective of soil composition and is thus suitable for the optimization of irrigation systems.

Application of Smart Techniques, Internet of Things and Data Mining for Resource Use Efficient and Sustainable Crop Production

“…Soil properties, meteorological data and seasonal fluctuations, seed quality, harvesting methods, monitoring of pests and diseases, managing nutrient deficiencies, and maintaining water requirements for the crops are all contributing factors for predicting the overall yield of a plant or crop. Precision agriculture has been used for years and now researchers are considering the use of variable rate technologies [70], sensor monitoring [16], and management systems to ensure better crop health [27], improved productivity [28], and better quality [71] of the produce. Sensor-and drone-assisted quality monitoring of horticultural crops [21], yield predicting sensors [72] on harvesters of various agronomic crops [73] (Figure 4), and use of the internet and real time data simulators [74] are receiving attention day by day, particularly for their use in large scale crop production.…”

“…Additionally, with the help of data mining technologies [11], a large number of datasets, either agronomical [12], genomics [13], or meteorological [14], are partitioned into useful information to make easy and efficient decision making [15] in order to make farming activities more precise and efficient. Climaticor soil-related data in smart agriculture and farming is obtained using sensors [16], and then automatic processing of this big data is carried out with the help of modern methods and analysis tools, such as machine learning [17], spike and slab regression analysis, and time-series analysis [18]. This process gives the obtained data an easy, understandable, and knowledgeable form, which then warns the farmers about any upcoming climatic events, i.e., droughts or heavy rains, chances of insect or pest infestation, and the spread of infectious disease (i.e., fungal diseases) [19].…”

“…The internet of things provides efficient ways to assist the farmers and researchers in the agricultural crop production sector. Moreover, it assists the decision making by making various information readily available when it comes to soil [16], water [21], pesticides [22], fertilizers [23], and manures [24]. Climate change and global warming are the burning issues of the world, with a lot of studies and resources being spent to ensure a better future for the coming generations.…”

Associations between Surface Deformation and Groundwater Storage in Different Landscape Areas of the Loess Plateau, China

“…Terrestrial water storage is composed of five parts: soil water, surface water, ice and snow water, groundwater, and canopy water. Soil water content directly affects the weathering of soil minerals and the leaching of vegetation nutrients from soil [20] and indirectly affects the change in canopy water storage of vegetation communities [21]. Seasonal ice and snow water have made an important contribution to alleviating regional water shortages and restoring ecosystems [22].…”

Precision irrigation in citrus with different water qualities

“…Its low price makes this sensor one of the most widely used in the agricultural sector for the measure of SMP (Montesano et al, 2015). Yet, the use of tensiometers for irrigation purposes has disadvantages such as its high maintenance, its bad performance in dry soil conditions (Muñoz-Carpena et al, 2005) and its limited measurement range (Menne et al, 2022). Granular matrix sensors are an adaptation of the gypsum block ones, since they consist of two electrodes located above a gypsum wafer, embedded within a granular fill matrix.…”