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Smart Irrigation Technologies Reduce Water Use by up to 49% in FloridaFlorida, the third most populous state in the nation, has experienced 390% population growth since 1970. In 2008, Florida used more groundwater than any state in the nation and trend charts had predicted significant increases in use moving forward. By 2013, state officials became so concerned that they established a limit on groundwater withdrawals, despite population increases. This required a decrease in water consumption per person.
As part of an effort to encourage water conservation, the state established incentives to increase adoption of smart irrigation controllers. In order to educate potential users, the University of Florida conducted several studies to see how much water could be saved using weather-based and soil moisture sensor-based smart irrigation technologies compared to traditional timer-based systems.
One of the studies compared the Rainbird weather-based (ET) controller and Baseline soil moisture sensors to timer-based systems in areas with sand and flatwood soil types. They also evaluated how much education would increase water savings. Unlike traditional timer-based systems, smart irrigation technologies provide feedback to the controller – either weather data or soil moisture data – that affect pre-programmed irrigation schedules.
All of the participants in this study were selected from a group of high-water users.
Table 1. Study Participants
SITE SOIL TYPE
NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS
RAINBIRD ETRAINBIRD ET
+ EDUBASELINE
SMSBASELINE
SMS + EDUTRADITIONAL
TIMERHunters Creek Flatwood 8 8 8 8 8
Keenes Pointe Sand 4 4 4 4 3
North Tanner Road Sand 0 5 0 5 5
Turtle Creek Sand 4 4 4 4 4
Waterford Lakes Flatwood 12 12 12 12 12
Sweetwater Sand 0 5 0 5 3
Case Study
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2 | University of Florida Smart Irrigation Technologies Case Study
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Published August 17, 2018© Copyright 2018 Baseline Irrigation Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.
Results Water savings were achieved by all participants with smart irrigation controllers. The group with the Baseline soil moisture sensors saved more water than those with the Rainbird ET controllers. The group that received education saved even more water than those who did not (Figure 1).
The most impressive result was the 49% water savings over traditional timer-based systems achieved by the group that installed soil moisture sensors and received education.
Water savings were achieved by all smart irrigation technologies, regardless of soil types, especially when combined with education, with no impact on plant health (Figure 2).
Figure 1. Comparison of water savings by irrigation technology, with and without education. ET refers to the Rainbird weather-based system and SMS refers to the Baseline soil moisture sensor system.
Figure 2. Comparison of irrigation application by technology. The GIR Range refers to the optimal gross irrigation requirement. ET refers to the Rainbird weather-based system and SMS refers to the Baseline soil moisture sensor system.
Our cost-effective Baseline WaterTec S100 ™ was the
soil moisture sensor used in this study.
Learn about the WaterTec S100 >
