Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) for Drought Analysis and Mitigation Action

These activities are included inside a PhD project (Student: Hamouda Fatma; Supervisor: Rallo Giovanni; Opponent: Fuentes Sigfredo) with the objective to develop two wireless sensor networks (WSN) in two Tuscany agro-environment: vineyards in Chianti and pear orchards in Arezzo.

In the Chianti terroir the WSN will provide:

      1. farmers with a management tool to support supplemental irrigation and defining the time and amount of watering
      2. a tool for the policymakers to assess objectively the occurrence of drought periods.

Vineyards registered under Controlled Designation of Origin (CDO), such as Chianti, are subjected to certification to verify that the product quality meets the conditions requested from the respective regulations. Dry farming is usually practised in Chianti region, thus supplemental irrigation (SI) could be necessary after prolonged periods of drought to support the well-functioning of the vineyard.

Therefore, monitoring the soil and crop water status in Chianti region can represent an innovative practice to support the audit of drought, which characterizes the wine terroir of Central Italy. In this context, the research project will dispose of a smart soil moisture monitoring system, AgriNET, designed and manufactured in USA by Tuctronics (Walla Walla, Washington, USA).

The laboratory transferred at the Illuminati Frutta a six-nodes WSN for the feed-back control irrigation scheduling in a pear orchard. In this context, the WSN, provided by Tuctronics, was installed after a zoning analysis, which aimed to design the zones where at least one node of the WSN has to be installed.

As a result, the farmers acquire awareness and are able to perform a feed-back control of the irrigation by looking up to their AgriNET App. In doing this, they will maintain the soil water content within a pre-defined optimal range. This range is delimited from an upper (i.e., above the field capacity) and a lower (i.e., dependent on the adopted water-saving strategy) limit.

Finally, referring to a conservative estimate, Illuminati Frutta have saved up to about 35% of the water supplied by comparing the new performance with the ordinary irrigation protocol. Further analyses will quantify water productivity and energy use efficiency.

 

 

Deliverable