Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition Software for Drip Irrigation Control in Olive Orchards: An Experience in an Arid Region of Argentina

Abstract

The proper management of irrigation systems is a key factor to achieve an efficient use of water and an adequate crop production. The use of new automatic control and communication technologies, offers a set of tools for data gathering and analysis, and assists agronomists and farmers to take better decisions in order to develop a sustainable agriculture, able to maintain its productivity and to be useful to the society in the long term. This work presents the implementation and set-up of a Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system designed to supervise and control a drip irrigation system. The irrigation system is installed in a young olive orchard, located in San Juan, an arid region fully dependent on irrigation. The main task of the system is to gather and display the information coming from the field devices (soil moisture sensors, weather station, water flow-meters and programmablelogic-controller (PLC) for commanding the irrigation system) and automatically control the irrigation. The main screen of the SCADA software presents current information related to the process and, in other tabs, gives a detailed report of data. The gathered information is saved to a data base that can be accessed by different users, allowing the participation of other users, such as irrigation advisers, laboratories, quality control, maintenance, etc. Information can be accedes locally, through internet or by other means. Results of this experience show that it is possible to apply new technological tools to manage the irrigation process as a way to improve its efficiency.

Smart & Green: An Internet-of-Things Framework for Smart Irrigation

“…The system receives data from a weather station on the farm to estimate the reference evapotranspiration ET o . The system also utilizes the curve of the crop coefficient k c , choosing its value according to the current developmental stage of the crop [38].…”

Remote supervision and control based on wireless technology to operation of central pivot irrigation machine

“…Modern irrigation techniques using pivots make it possible to include tools for the collection, analysis, and transmission of data in real time, with the aim of facilitating decision-making to develop precision agriculture (Capraro, Tosetti, & Vita-Serman, 2014;Kranz, Evans, Lamm, O'Shaughnessy, & Peters, 2010). In this context, the center pivot machines stand out, which have a high degree of automation, generated by the technological advances reached recently in the agricultural sector.…”

“…This is influenced by local and regional topography as well as the cost of the technology to be used, with the aim to guarantee the reliability of the supervision system (Pfitscher et al, 2011). Las técnicas modernas de riego utilizando pivotes posibilitan incluir herramientas para la recolección, el análisis y la transmisión de datos en tiempo real, con el objetivo de facilitar la toma de decisiones para desarrollar una agricultura de precisión (Capraro, Tosetti, & Vita-Serman, 2014;Kranz, Evans, Lamm, O'Shaughnessy, & Peters, 2010). En este contexto, se destacan las máquinas de pivote central, que cuentan con un alto grado de automatización, generado por los avances tecnológicos alcanzados en los últimos tiempos en el sector agrícola.…”

Web-Based System for the Remote Monitoring and Management of Precision Irrigation: A Case Study in an Arid Region of Argentina

“…For these reasons, farmers need technologies aimed at monitoring and optimizing the use of water, fertilizers, and electric energy [ 12 ].…”