ABSTRACT
The author is thankful to Stevens Water Monitoring Systems, Inc. for the support. Printed with permission from: https://www.stevenswater.com/articles/irrigationscheduling.aspx.
14.1 INTRODUCTION
In the western United States, irrigation accounts for about 80% of the water consumed [8]. Concerns about changes in land use due to growing populations, climate change, and the protection of aquatic habitats are driving a need to conserve water. Optimization of irrigation will not only benefit the environment, but also benefit local economies. Over irrigation may lead to dangerous increases in the total maximum daily loads (TMDL) of temperature, nitrates, and salinity in natural waters [6]. Nitrate fertilizers leached out of the soils get transported to natural waters causing eutrophication and other aquatic impairments. Run off from over irrigation may affect water quality parameters such as pH, total suspended solids (TSS), and dissolved oxygen [18]. Other negative impacts associated with over irrigation include wastes of water and energy, and reduced crop yields. The negative impacts associated with under irrigation are more intuitive. Under irrigation may reduce crop yields, which will reduce profit margins. This chapter discusses a soil water balance model incorporated into a data acquisition system that is a power tool for scheduling and optimizing irrigation. A case study for blueberries is presented.
