Water is one of nature’s most important resources and essential for the life of all living things, including plants. Today, we are increasingly confronted with dramatic climate change and its consequences. These are manifested in altered precipitation patterns, such as extreme rainfall and flooding or unexpected and more intense droughts, which also pose major challenges for the agricultural sector, which is involved in the cultivation of various crops.
These challenges have led to the increasing use of different irrigation systems in agriculture. Despite their efficiency, these systems also have drawbacks, such as excessive water consumption due to the uniform irrigation of an entire area, without considering the differences in conditions within the same area (different soil moisture, different soil types, etc.) or even the same field. As a result, some plants within the same area may be under-watered, while others may be over-watered.
GeoCodis has collaborated with Controlmatik and Faculty of Biotechnics of the University of Ljubljana, on the HidroSmart project. Our solution is a smart innovation that addresses the challenges of efficient management of irrigation systems. The HidroSmart system enables real-time target irrigation tailored to heterogeneous landscapes.
The system is based on satellite imagery, which is calibrated to a specific area using ground sensors. The imagery is processed using GeoCodis’ advanced algorithms and IT solutions. These are integrated and linked to smart irrigation systems that allow heterogeneous irrigation of agricultural areas with optimal water volumes. The system is adapted to different plant species and their phenological growth phases, ensuring high efficiency and sustainable use of water resources.
In the initial stages of the project, we identified the basic data sources, which can be divided into satellite imagery (e.g. Sentinel from the Sentinel Hub platform) and ground sensor measurements (relative soil moisture data). A key next step was to define the data pathways, which enabled the creation of an organised and unified database for the HidroSmart system, which is stored in the PostgreSQL data warehouse.
This was followed by the creation of a flowchart of the proposed HidroSmart architecture, where we defined the steps of the system operation. Based on the individual parts of the process, we identified existing open-source solutions to integrate into the system.
The HidroSmart system enables:
- selection of data for a specific time-period,
- selection of an Area of Interest (AOI),
- checking the phenological phase,
- calculation of relevant indices (e.g., NDVI, NDMI),
- classification of the area according to the index values,
- classification of the area according to watering requirements,
- selection of the type of irrigation system,
- establishing communication with the irrigation system.
GeoCodis has also developed a plug-in for QGIS software that acts as a viewer for the HidroSmart system. The plug-in allows users to easily view and analyse data, which further contributes to the usability of the system.