Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID ND_2024_Steele

Building NRCS Technical Capacity in Irrigation Water Management for Variable Rate Irrigation

Institute: North Dakota
Year Established: 2023 Start Date: 2023-09-01 End Date: 2024-05-15
Total Federal Funds: $2,500 Total Non-Federal Funds: $2,782

Principal Investigators: Dean D. Steele

Project Summary: Irrigation application is typically intended or assumed to be spatially uniform throughout the field (Barker et al., 2019). But due to soil type, water holding capacity, infiltration rate and topography, each site of the field may differ from others. Uniform application of water might cause dry areas as well as overwatered areas in the field. Effective irrigation management should keep the soil moisture close to field capacity, avoiding water loss through percolation and evaporation (Souza et al., 2019). The ability to turn irrigation water on and off or apply variably to different segments of the field is more efficient than the conventional uniform application (Han et al., 2009). Using variable rate irrigation (VRI), water application can be adjusted to the specific areas where it is needed, avoiding low yielding or non-cropping areas. Soil moisture sensors are important for monitoring the soil water level. By using the soil moisture data, variable rate irrigation can be applied to the field more precisely.