Methods and Tools to Manage Irrigation Water Windows

Seminar Description:
Irrigation Water Windows may be dictated by site use or by local ordinance (as with reclaimed water). In summer months, when irrigation run times are higher or after days off for an event, it may be difficult to ensure irrigation stays inside the Water Window. There are multiple tools in modern controllers to help manage the irrigation Water Window. Tools include:
• Flow Management utilities combine multi-station operation and a user defined maximum water source flow rate to help ensure the irrigation system uses a majority of the available water capacity when programs operate.
• Dryrun/Program Review utilities allow for review of the program(s) prior to operation to make sure they are operating inside the Water Window.
• Smart controllers utilizing automatic weather-based adjustments can water outside the Water Window after one of more days off for an event. Features such as MaxET allow you to cap the maximum daily ET to keep irrigation inside the Water Window. Unapplied ET is rolled over to the next available day to irrigate until the desired soil moisture balance is met.
• Station Priorities can be used to ensure high priority stations are irrigated early in program operation and, if irrigation needs to be paused/cancelled outside the Water Window, only lower priority stations are affected.


Learning Objectives:
1. Manage/maximize water source flow demand to shorten the time it takes to irrigate a site.
2. Use program review and station priorities to configure when stations are selected to operate.
3. Utilize Smart Controller Max Daily ET to keep irrigation inside the Water Window.