Title
Automatic Irrigation Scheduling Technique for Water Conservation
Under Arid Climatic Conditions
Author-s
A. L. Al-Amoud , F. S. Mohammad , M. O. Ghandorah, A. Sharaf
Eldin , H. M. Hathoot , and H. M. Abo-ghobar
Contact lnfo alamode@ksu.edu.sa
Department
Major
Year of
Publication
Agricultural Engineering
Irrigation
1994
Publisher
King Saud University, College of Agriculture, Agric.Res. Center, Research
Bulletin No. (42):1-31
Type of
Publication
Paper
Full Text
(Yes,No)
No
Key words
Abstract
automatic irrigation scheduling remote soil water sensing
An experiment was carried out at Hail region in Saudi Arabia to
implement an automatic irrigation scheduling technique for conservation of
water on a wheat crop for three seasons. The technique consisted of
developing a closed-loop system based on remote soil water sensing and
developing an open loop system based on water budget method. The first
technique consisted of sensing the soil water potential, using transducertensiometers located at various locations and depths throughout the field
area. The data were continuously collected in a central station and irrigation
was started/stopped automatically when the potential reached a specified
threshold level. The second scheduling system was based on soil water
depletion or crop evapotranspiration estimated from climatic data from an
automatic weather station installed at the site. The overall water savings was
25% as compared to control treatment. The average grain yield of wheat for
the three seasons increased by 10% and 8% in the soil water and water
budget treatments respectively. The performance of the two field automatic
irrigation scheduling systems was found satisfactory and easy to implement.