Monitoring and Management of Surface Flows in Flood Irrigated Checks Using a Network of Wireless Sensors

Surface irrigation methods, such as furrow or flood, have the highest potential for water losses of typical irrigation practices. These losses are generally in the form of tail-water discharge (runoff) and excess deep percolation caused by the over-application of water. Focus was placed on reducing runoff to manage field-level water losses thereby increasing water application efficiency. Based around an inflow cutoff method, a set of volume-balance algorithms were generated to limit runoff over multiple irrigations during a growing season. To apply these algorithms a series of wireless wetting-front advance sensors were developed with ∼0.5 mile range and a cellular communication system. Using only sensor measurements, field test data from 2011 and 2012 were used to monitor surface flow behavior and verify these methods in border-check irrigated alfalfa (around Yolo County, CA). If applied properly, with managed inflow setups, these algorithms have the potential to minimize surface runoff in irrigated fields.