Regional Long Range (LoRa) Networks to Improve High Elevation Flood Irrigation Water Management: TAWRP (Timer Automated Water Restriction Panel)
Project Overview
Most high elevation agricultural fields are irrigated using “wild flooding” not conducive to optimal water management. Several evaluation fields will be equipped with Long-Range Wide Area Networks (LoRaWAN) technology to improve irrigation scheduling and determine the changes in productivity, soil conditions, water use, water quality, labor allocations, and economic outcomes. Project partners are working with stakeholders in the Gunnison and Rio Grande River basins to improve irrigation practices on hay fields and pastures in Colorado’s Gunnison and Rio Grande River basins using LoRaWAN technology. Broadly speaking, LoRaWAN is an Internet of Things (IoT) technology designed to require little bandwidth and use minimal battery power for months or even years. Used in agriculture, LoRaWAN couples environmental sensing devices (e.g., soil moisture probes, groundwater level loggers) remotely with base stations that act as gateways to determine the actions of field equipment (e.g, irrigation systems). The LoRaWAN system allows in-field conditions to trigger alerts back to gateways when the monitoring sensors detect the presence/absence of water or soil moisture levels. Field sensors will be networked to a Timer Automated Water Restriction Panel (TAWRP), which is a newly designed form of irrigation equipment that has been invented for project.
Collaborators
- Perry E. Cabot, Extension Professor, Colorado Water Center, CSU Extension, CSU AES
- Jesse Kruthaupt, Upper Gunnison Project Manager, Trout Unlimited
- Amy Kremen, Project Manager, CSU Irrigation Innovation Consortium
- Susie Hutton, Communications Specialist, CSU Irrigation Innovation Consortium
- AJ Brown, Data Specialist and Agronomist, CSU Agriculture Water Quality Program
Funding
$35,000
This project is supported with funding from the Natural Resources Conservation Service under the Conservation Innovation Grant Program
