Progress 09/01/11 to 08/31/15
Outputs
Target Audience:The online irrigation water management (IWM) system named Water Irrigation Scheduler for Efficiency (WISE) was demonstrated to 199 individuals including farmers, water managers, crop consultants, and conservation agency personnel. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Five workshops were given to review the basic theory of irrigation scheduling and to demonstrate the use of WISE on a Web browser. Continuing education units (CEU) were offered to certified crop advisors who attended the presentations. One M.S. student was trained on field techniques for irrigation water management, mobile app development, and computer modeling of field hydrology. The student graduated with a M.S. Soil and Crop Sciences degree in December, 2014. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?In addition to the online resources mentioned above, the following communities of interest were reached to promote and demonstrate the adoption of WISE during the last year of the project (1 September 2014 - 31 August 2015). USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) staff and farmers, 25 November 2014, Fort Morgan, Colorado (10 participants) USDA-NRCS staff, 9 December 2014, Julesberg and Holyoke, Colorado (15 participants) Independent Crop Consultants, 12 January 2015, Eastern Colorado. (75 participants) USDA-NRCS conservationist, water engineer, corn growers representative, and a farmer, 23 March 2015, Fort Collins, CO. (4 participants) Farmers, 16 April 2015, Longmont, CO (20 participants) Farmers, conservationists, and crop consultants, 30 July 2015, Center, CO [San Luis Valley Field Day] (33 participants) Farmers, conservationists, researchers, and consultants; 21 August 2015, Greeley, CO [Limited Irrigation Field Day] (42 participants) What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The WISE tool was demonstrated at five workshops and presented at two field days at various venues across Colorado in the last year of the project (1 September 2014 - 31 August 2015). These events reached 199 individuals including farmers, water managers, crop consultants, and conservation agency personnel. Participants learned principles of irrigation water management and conservation using the water balance approach of irrigation scheduling to reduce water losses from surface runoff and deep percolation; and to avoid crop water stress. The participants gave positive comments on the WISE system as well as additional suggestions for improving the tool. WISE was used on 20 hectares of experimental fields during the 2015 growing season. In addition, other producers (early adopters) used WISE for more efficient irrigation scheduling on approximately 668 hectares. Evaluations of WISE for 2 growing seasons (2013-2014) to calculate daily root zone deficit (Dc) for 4 sprinkler-irrigated sugar beet fields in north east Colorado resulted in improved sugar beet evapotranspiration (crop consumptive water use) calculations for sugar beets in WISE. Daily actual crop evapotranspiration (ETc) from 4 sugar beet fields in northeast Colorado and 1 corn field in southeast Colorado were estimated for 2013 and 2014 growing seasons using the Remote Sensing of EvapoTranspiration (ReSET) model. Landsat 7 and 8 satellite images were used in the ReSET model. The ReSET-estimated actual ETc values will be compared to WISE calculated ETc values to evaluate WISE's accuracy in estimating actual ETc. The remotely-sensed ETc values can also be used directly in the WISE daily soil water balance calculations to determine irrigation water requirements. However, the ReSET calculations could not be fully automated and were therefore not included in the current version of WISE. A new website (http://wise.colostate.edu/) was developed for WISE to provide a centralized location for outreach/extension to the public. The website includes an online user guide with video tutorials, information on field validation, resources (online fact sheets on irrigation scheduling and the CoAgMet weather network; publications), and links to eRAMS and the WISE mobile apps.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2015
Citation:
Bartlett, A.C., Andales, A.A., Arabi, M., Bauder, T.A. 2015. A Smartphone App to Extend Use of a Cloud-based Irrigation Scheduling Tool. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture 111:127-130.
- Type:
Theses/Dissertations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2014
Citation:
Bartlett, A.C. 2014. Improving accuracy for sugar beet and developing an iOS App to increase functionality of a Colorado irrigation scheduler. M.S. Thesis. Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, pp.150. (http://hdl.handle.net/10217/88502)
- Type:
Websites
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2015
Citation:
Water Irrigation Scheduler for Efficient Application
http://wise.colostate.edu/
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2015
Citation:
Andales, A.A. 2015. The Water Irrigation Scheduler for Efficiency (WISE) online tool for Colorado. International Workshop on High-efficient Water Use in Agriculture (111 Project). 1-7 June 2015, Center for Agricultural Water Research in China, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China.
|
Progress 09/01/13 to 08/31/14
Outputs
Target Audience: The online irrigation water management (IWM) system named Water Irrigation Scheduler for Efficiency (WISE) was demonstrated to 48 individuals including farmers, water managers, crop consultants, and agency personnel. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? One conference presentation was given to review the basic theory of irrigation scheduling and to demonstrate the use of WISE on a Web browser. Continuing education units (CEU) were offered to certified crop advisors who attended the presentation. The presentation was titled “Colorado Irrigation Scheduler” [Central Plains Irrigation Conference. 25 February 2014, Burlington, CO. (20 attendees)]. One M.S. student learned how to develop a smartphone app and was trained on field techniques for monitoring the field soil water balance, irrigation water requirements, and crop development. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? In addition to the conference presentation and online resources mentioned above, the following workshops and demonstrations were held. (a) Mobile Irrigation Scheduler Stakeholder Workshop, 28 January 2014, Fort Collins, CO. (14 attendees) (b) CoAgMet and Irrigation Scheduling Workshop (Demo of the Online Irrigation Scheduler). Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District. 3 April 2014, Salida, CO. (14 attendees) One-on-one demonstrations of WISE were also done with 4 sugar beet cooperator farmers. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Field water balance and crop development data collected in the 2013 and 2014 growing seasons from four center pivot-irrigated sugar beet fields will be analyzed to further evaluate the accuracy of WISE in estimating irrigation water requirements. The profile soil water content estimated by WISE will be compared to observed values to evaluate the accuracy of the water balance model and to assess the effectiveness of the tool in improving irrigation application efficiency. Adjustments to the crop coefficient curves will be done to improve accuracy of evapotranspiration calculations. The existing iPhone app will be ported to HTML5 to make the smartphone app accessible to other mobile platforms such as Android and Windows. The project team will continue to demonstrate and promote WISE to a wider audience throughout Colorado.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
A stakeholder’s workshop held on January 28, 2014 at Colorado State University (CSU) provided an update on the latest version of the IWM system, which was subsequently named “Water Irrigation Scheduler for Efficiency” (WISE). A prototype iPhone app that displays irrigation requirement and synchronizes with WISE was also demonstrated. The stakeholders gave positive comments on the system as well as additional suggestions for improving the functionality. The suggestions were prioritized and were implemented in the online WISE tool. WISE was pilot-tested on about 130 hectares of sprinkler-irrigated fields during the 2014 growing season. In addition, other producers (early adopters) used WISE for irrigation scheduling on approximately 668 hectares. Evaluations of the IWM system for 3 growing seasons (2010-2012) to calculate daily root zone deficit (Dc) for a sprinkler-irrigated corn field in north east Colorado gave relative errors ranging from 2% to 31% compared to measured daily Dc. Average root mean square error (RMSE) was 16 mm of water, an acceptable amount as it could be compensated by a single irrigation event. In this study, it was shown that a 27% (139 mm) reduction in gross irrigation was possible for 2011 by using the IWM system, compared to actual irrigations applied by the farmer. An online user guide was developed, along with video tutorials. The iPhone app that displays basic irrigation information and synchronizes with WISE was also published in the Apple store.
Publications
- Type:
Book Chapters
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2014
Citation:
Andales, A.A., Bauder, T.A., and Arabi, M. 2014. A Mobile Irrigation Water Management System Using a Collaborative GIS and Weather Station Networks. In: Practical Applications of Agricultural System Models to Optimize the Use of Limited Water (Ahuja, L.R., Ma, L., Lascano, R.; Eds.), Advances in Agricultural Systems Modeling, Volume 5. ASA-CSSA-SSSA, Madison, Wisconsin, pp. 53-84.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2014
Citation:
Andales, A.A. 2014. Colorado Irrigation Scheduler. In: Proceedings of the 26th Annual Central Plains Irrigation Conference, Burlington, CO., February 25-26, 2014, pp 26-33.
(http://www.ksre.ksu.edu/pr_irrigate/OOW/P14/Andales2014.pdf)
|
Progress 09/01/12 to 08/31/13
Outputs
Target Audience: The online irrigation water management (IWM) system was demonstrated to more than 100 individuals including farmers, water managers, crop consultants, and agency personnel. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? One conference presentation was given to review the basic theory of irrigation scheduling and to demonstrate the use of the IWM system on a Web browser. Continuing education units (CEU) were offered to certified crop advisors who attended the presentation. The presentation was titled “Advanced Irrigation Scheduling (Online Irrigation Scheduler demo)” [Rocky Mountain Agribusiness Association (RMAA) Annual Convention and Trade Show. 16 January 2013, Crown Plaza Hotel – DIA, Denver, CO. (~50 attendees)] How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? In addition to the conference presentation mentioned above, the following workshops and demonstrations were held. (a) Irrigation scheduling. Arkansas Valley Research Center Field Day. 6 September 2012, Rocky Ford, CO. (~15 attendees) (b) Irrigation Scheduler on eRAMS (Stakeholders Workshop). 8 April 2013, Clark Building, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO. (11 stakeholders attended) (c) CoAgMet and Irrigation Scheduling Workshop (Demo of the Online Irrigation Scheduler on eRAMS). Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District. 26 April 2013, Salida, CO. (10 attendees – 3 farmers, 1 NRCS technician, 1 newspaper reporter, 2 Conservancy District staff, 3 board members) (d) Progress on the Mobile Irrigation Scheduler and Variable Rate Irrigation research. Dry Bean Field Day, 20 August 2013, Lucerne, CO. (12 attendees) One-on-one demonstrations of the IWM system were also done with 4 sugar beet cooperator farmers, one irrigation consultant, and two personnel of Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District. All-in-all for this reporting period, the IWM system was demonstrated to more than 100 individuals including farmers, water managers, crop consultants, and agency personnel. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Field water balance and crop development data were collected in 2013 from four center pivot-irrigated sugar beet fields and several irrigated corn fields. The profile soil water content estimated by the IWM system will be compared to the 2013 observed values to evaluate the accuracy of the water balance model and to assess the effectiveness of the tool in improving irrigation application efficiency. Adjustments to the crop coefficient curves will be done to improve accuracy of evapotranspiration calculations. A second season of water balance and crop development data will be collected in 2014 to further evaluate the effectiveness of the IWM system for irrigation scheduling. The 2014 growing season will also be the first season for evaluating the effectiveness of the mobile smart phone app in scheduling irrigations. Webinars and YouTube videos will also be developed to further demonstrate the functionality of the IWM system to a wider audience.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
A stakeholder’s workshop held on April 8, 2013 at Colorado State University (CSU) generated many valuable suggestions and feedback to the project team on how to improve the user interface of the IWM system, especially for greater utility to farmers. Most of the suggestions have been implemented in the online IWM system. Demonstrations of the tool resulted in initial adoption for gathering base line information on irrigation scheduling in the 2013 growing season. Western Sugar Cooperative gave support for adopting the IWM system for sugar beet irrigation management. The IWM system was tested in 2013 on four sugar beet sprinkler-irrigated center pivot fields managed by 4 different farmers in northeast Colorado. The USDA-NRCS Colorado office and several Water Conservancy Districts have expressed interest in adopting/promoting the IWM system among their clients.
Publications
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2013
Citation:
Andales, A.A., Arabi, M., Bauder, T.A. 2013. A Mobile Irrigation Scheduling Tool for Colorado. In: Colorado Water (Middleton, L.A.), vol. 30(4) (July/August 2013):10-13, Colorado Water Institute, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO.
(http://wsnet.colostate.edu/cwis31/ColoradoWater/Images/Newsletters/2013/CW_30_4.pdf)
|
Progress 09/01/11 to 08/31/12
Outputs
OUTPUTS: A workshop to demonstrate a prototype of the irrigation scheduling tool running on the eRAMS/Cloud Services Innovation Platform was held on August 6, 2012 at Colorado State University (CSU). Among the participants were 7 members of the CSU Extension Water Resources Team, which is actively involved in promoting best management practices for irrigation water management to farmers and water managers. Participants gained hands-on experience configuring an irrigated field in the tool, selecting relevant weather stations, inputting irrigation dates and amounts, and viewing the chart of daily soil water balance. Participants gave valuable suggestions and feedback to the programmers on how to improve the user interface, especially for greater utility to farmers. PARTICIPANTS: Allan Andales and Mazdak Arabi supervised the development of the irrigation scheduling tool prototype. Kyle Traff (programmer) developed the prototype on the eRAMS/ Cloud Services Innovation Platform. Troy Bauder and Denis Reich of CSU Extension helped organize the tool demonstration workshop. A CSU student has begun preliminary preparations for developing a mobile app to synch with the online irrigation scheduling tool. TARGET AUDIENCES: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Not relevant to this project.
Impacts
The development of the online irrigation scheduling prototype adds value to the existing Colorado Agricultural Meteorological Network (CoAgMet), which has been providing online daily crop consumptive water use estimates at around 70 locations across Colorado. In addition to daily values of calculated crop water use and precipitation data from CoAgMet, the irrigation scheduling tool provides daily estimates of root zone soil water content for user-specified fields. The irrigation tool provides enhanced graphing capabilities to view charts of CoAgMet weather data, as well as new charts of field water balance. The tool can also be used to view soil maps of user-specified fields, via online access to the USDA-Soil Survey Geographic (SSURGO) Database. The tool can also access National Weather Service (NWS) forecasts to give short-term estimates of irrigation water requirements. All this information can help improve the management of irrigation water in the State. The prototype is not publicly available because it is still undergoing testing, but it is fully functional to provide the services described above.
Publications
- Andales, A.A., Arabi, M., David, O. 2012, Mobile irrigation water management system using eRAMS/CSIP. USDA-NIFA National Water Conference Proceedings, 20-24 May 2012, Portland, Oregon. (Poster) http://www.usawaterquality.org/conferences/2012/Posters/Andales_poste r.pdf
|
|