Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID CA_2025_Albuquerque

Testing proximal sensors technology to improve irrigation use efficiency for vegetable production in the Salinas Valley

Institute: California
Year Established: 2025 Start Date: 2026-01-01 End Date: 2026-12-31
Total Federal Funds: $30,497 Total Non-Federal Funds: $10,408

Principal Investigators: Caetano Albuquerque

Project Summary: Our goal is to test the use of thermal cameras on autonomous robots to measure crop water stress in lettuce to inform improved irrigation scheduling and management decisions. We will use a combination of field and lab measurements to establish a correlation between proximal sensor measurements and plant physiological responses such as photosynthesis and leaf water potentials related to water availability. We expect to find a strong association between thermal camera readings with plant water use and productivity, and that proximal sensors can be calibrated to reflect crop photosynthetic performance and water status.