Method and System to Control Irrigation Across Large Geographic Areas Using Remote Sensing, Weather and Field Level Data

• US 20120290140A1
• Filed: 04/25/2012
• Published: 11/15/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/13/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Climate Pty., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: HydroBio, Inc. (Bayer AG)
• Inventors: Groeneveld, David P.
• Granted Patent: US 9,131,642 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/284
• CPC Class Codes: A01G 22/00 Cultivation of specific crops or plants not otherwise provided for
• CPC Class Codes: A01G 25/16 Control of watering
• CPC Class Codes: Y02A 40/22 Improving land use; Improving water use or availability; Controlling erosion

Abstract

A system and method to use remote sensing to estimate crop water use that is forecasted and is updated as weather and new satellite data become available. From these data the system and method uses a water accounting algorithm to prescribe irrigation differentially for regions of a field or for the entire field as an average. Irrigation prescription is delivered remotely through Internet technology.

Claims

1. A system for managing agricultural irrigation of crops in a field or a region thereof based on forecasted crop water requirements comprising:

at least one irrigation sprinkler located on the field or region thereof; and

at least one irrigation controller for adjusting water delivery to crops in the agricultural field, the controller located on or near the agricultural field;

at least one instrument package that yields data on soil water, irrigation, solar radiation and rainfall located on or near the agricultural field or region thereof in communication with said at least one controller;

a computer system remotely located from the field, the computer system storing selected data from the most recent Earth observation satellite data, historical reference evapotranspiration (Err), field boundary location data, and crop growth curve statistics, said computer system additionally transmitting and receiving data from said at least one controller including data from said instrument package;

said computer system including, a first algorithm for initiating a first daily forecasted crop water use for future periods of days to weeks for the field and its regions that is based upon initial crop conditions assessed by Earth observation satellite data expressed as NDVI*, a function to adjust NDVI* to be a scalar of ETr for unbiased estimation of crop water use (ETa), statistical growth curves for the crop type growing in the field expressed as NDVI*, and historical ETr,

a second algorithm for later adjusting the forecasted crop water usage of a field and its regions, performed at least daily based upon an update of the crop canopy condition, expressed as NDVI* obtained from Earth observation satellite data for the day of the overpass, a function to adjust NDVI* to be a scalar of ETr for unbiased estimation of ETa, the statistical growth curve for the crop type expressed as NDVI* and actual weather, including rainfall and ETr for each period that has been completed, and

a communication server for intercommunicating with said at least one controller to provide irrigation system control.

2. A system for managing agricultural irrigation of crops in the field in accordance with claim 1 additionally including a third algorithm for soil water accounting for the field and its regions by determining the water depletion from crop water use after applying the first and second algorithms and the water added through rainfall and irrigation.

3. The system for managing agricultural irrigation of crops in the field in accordance with claim 2 wherein said third algorithm accounts for starting soil water storage, water added in the form of irrigation and rain, and depletion in the form of crop water use.

4. The system for managing agricultural irrigation of crops in the field in accordance with claim 3 additionally including a fourth algorithm receiving the output from the third algorithm to prescribe and schedule irrigation to replace the forecasted crop water use for a field and its regions and, in advance of any critical period forecasted for a field in which the rate of crop water use exceeds the maximum rate of supply from the irrigation system, to prescribe enhanced irrigation to build soil water storage in advance of, and to meet the deficit in supply that may occur.

5. The system for managing agricultural irrigation of crops in the field in accordance with claim 4 in which the fourth algorithm calculates the soil water in the field in advance of harvest and curtails irrigation in order to deplete the remaining soil water storage within reach of the crop'"'"'s roots.

6. The system for managing agricultural irrigation of claim 1 wherein the crops in each region of the field have different water use requirements.

7. The system for managing agricultural irrigation of claim 1 wherein said at least one irrigation sprinkler serves at least one region within the field.

8. The system for managing agricultural irrigation of claim 5 wherein water delivery is varied for regions of the field containing crops.

9. The system for managing agricultural irrigation of claim 1 wherein said first algorithmic calculation of the crop water use is based on empirically derived factors for the crop canopy.

10. The system for managing agricultural irrigation of claim 9 wherein the crop canopy is assessed by a vegetation index that estimates greenness.

11. The system for managing agricultural irrigation of claim 10 wherein the canopy greenness is assessed using the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) calculated from infrared and red bands of the Earth observation satellite data.

12. The system for managing agricultural irrigation of claim 11 wherein the NDVI is mathematically extended to NDVI*, an index where zero is bare soil with no vegetation cover and unity is a surface saturated with peak vegetation cover and greenness.

13. The system for managing agricultural irrigation of claim 12 wherein said NDVI* corrects for the data scattering effects of soil background and atmospheric aerosols.

14. The system for managing agricultural irrigation of claim 11 wherein said NDVI is based on data from the geographic area of interest based on Landsat TM.

15. The system for managing agricultural irrigation of claim 14 wherein said data is obtained from other Earth Orbiting Systems and calibrated to the Landsat TM data by linear regression analysis of extracted pixels from the data scene.

16. A method for managing agricultural irrigation of crops in a field or a region thereof based on forecasted crop water requirements and other factors comprising the steps of:

placing on or near the agricultural field at least one irrigation sprinkler located on the field or region thereof, at least one irrigation controller for adjusting water delivery to crops in the agricultural field that is located on or near the agricultural field, and at least one instrument package gathering data on soil water, irrigation, solar radiation and rainfall on or near the agricultural field or region thereof and communicating the gathered data with the at least one controller;

locating a computer system remotely from the field and in communication with the controller;

gathering and storing data in the computer system from the most recent Earth observation satellite data, historical reference evapotranspiration, field boundary location data crop growth curve statistics expressed as NDVI*;

processing a first algorithm for initially forecasting daily crop water use for the field and its regions based upon initial crop conditions assessed by Earth observation satellite data expressed as NDVI*, a function to adjust NDVI* to be a scalar of ETr for unbiased estimation of ETa, statistical growth curves expressed as NDVI* for the crop growing in the field, and historical reference ET; and

transmitting the initial crop water use to the at least one controller;

subsequently, iteratively processing one or more additional algorithms for adjusting the initially forecasted crop water usage based upon an update of the crop canopy condition expressed as NDVI* obtained from Earth observation satellite data for the day of the overpass, the statistical growth curve for that crop expressed as NDVI*, and actual weather, including rainfall and reference ET for each day that is completed; and

transmitting the updated crop water use to the at least one controller to adjust water delivery to the at least one sprinkler.

17. The method for managing an agricultural irrigation system of claim 16 additionally including a third algorithm for water accounting for the field and its regions by determining and forecasting water depletion through crop water use and addition through rainfall and irrigation.

18. The system for managing an agricultural irrigation system of claim 16 additionally a fourth algorithm that utilizes the soil water accounting of the algorithm to prescribe and schedule irrigation through a place the forecasted crop water use for a field and its regions.

19. The method for managing an agricultural irrigation system of claim 18 wherein the fourth algorithm calculates a soil water bank to carry the crop through the critical period when the rate of crop water use exceeds the maximal rate of supply of the irrigation system and enhances the soil water bank data by increasing water delivery through the at least one sprinkler to meet the deficit in supply that is forecasted to occur in the soil water bank determination.

20. The method of claim 16 for managing an agricultural irrigation system wherein water use accounting is used to optimize irrigation scheduling to meet the requirements of the crop at all times of the season, including a critical period wherein the rate of sprinkler production may be less than the crop water use demand.