Monitoring and management of a novel irrigation system with respect to effective water use

The Institute for Hydraulics and Rural Water Management, BOKU is currently testing a water-saving irrigation system in close cooperation with the Hydrip GmbH, Vienna. The patented system consists of a combination of subsurface drip irrigation and utilization of a water-holding amendment on a clay mineral basis. After extensive laboratory tests, the optimized system was installed in April 2010 in a recently planted vineyard. During the detailed planning of the field operation emerged the question how the new irrigation system should be managed in order to ensure an optimum supply of water and nutrients to plants along with minimal water applications. The main goal of this project is to develop and implement a system for monitoring plant-available soil water as a decision support system for irrigation, optimized for a vineyard with the Hydrip® subsurface drip irrigation system. For evaluation of the irrigation needs from climatic view, weather data from the field trial is also required. Regarding user-friendliness, the entire measuring station should be equipped with the less possible number of sensors. In addition, the data will be available via the Internet to offer farmers a simple and objective basis for their operations. For this purpose an already existing radio network from the Adcon Telemetry GmbH, Klosterneuburg, can be used. Preliminary tests regarding the linkage of soil water probes to the network and the practical application were carried out in 2009 in the frame of an irrigation study on a maize field at BOKUs experimental station in Groß-Enzersdorf.