Efficient and precise irrigation with the use of remote management technologies
The latest advances in technology are being applied in different ways in agriculture. An example of this is the transformation being made by Irrigation Communities with the application of information systems for efficient water management.
The Instituto Murciano de Investigación y Desarrollo Alimentario (IMIDA), which is part of AgritechMurcia, through the GISyT (Geographic Information Systems and Remote Sensing) Team, is carrying out work in the Irrigation Communities to incorporate and improve 4.0 technologies in order to optimise the irrigation water used by its members.
The general idea is to promote the digital transformation of the agricultural sector to increase its efficiency through the use of advanced robotics, sensor networks and embedded systems, applied to water management systems, above all in irrigation communities which use regenerated water intensively.
The work carried out by Imida’s technicians, in collaboration with the Miraflores Irrigation Community in Jumilla, focuses on promoting the use of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) as well as improving the management of the SCADA system (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition System for installations) which allows, among other things, the integration and processing of data collected from different sensors and equipment, as well as generating reports to be able to compare with historical data.
This system also makes it possible to remotely control the facilities, which consist of seven pumping units and six regulation reservoirs, totalling a capacity of 1,091,295 cubic metres, plus a 20,000 cubic metre reception reservoir at the Jumilla WWTP.
Specifically, the actions carried out in this Jumillano irrigation community have included the cadastral identification of all its plots and the migration of the cartography to an interoperable GIS format; the installation of GIS software, the setting up of a data consultation and editing project, and the use and improvement of SCADA data in a viewer.
In addition, its personnel have been trained to consult and update cartographic data in GIS format. Finally, Imida has installed and integrated a new weather station into the SCADA of the aforementioned irrigation community, and a data model has been created that allows energy efficiency parameters to be defined for the seven pumping equipment.
All of this work, which forms part of the project ‘Promotion of the circular economy in agriculture and water management through the advanced use of new technologies’, has been financed with FEDER funds from Programme 1420-25.
Cost savings and efficiency
This line of work is being developed by the companies of AgritechMurcia with a system of remote management, filtration and tools that provide information through maps. This is a high precision technology, in which farmers benefit from savings in water costs with greater efficiency.
Irrigation communities are provided with hydrant systems which they identify by plot so that they can control their water consumption, remote management systems, energy audits and optimisation of energy consumption and the design of water storage reservoirs.
They also have tools that provide information through maps and, based on this information, making the appropriate decisions is a great advantage for the management of Irrigation Communities or irrigation groups and their socio-economic interaction and environmental sustainability.
In addition, filtration solution systems are incorporated which guarantee maximum efficiency in the use of water and energy as it is a low pressure self-cleaning system with an optimised design to reduce water consumption during cleaning and maintenance of the filters.
All these solutions are already in operation in different Irrigation Communities achieving great efficiency and can be found at this link.
