Hello everyone!

Daniyar, 1966, industrial automation engineer, Kazakhstan.

I wanted to discuss my projects with the forum participants.

Their relevance, what mistakes, criticism, create a team (if there are those willing or a large company) and move on.

What threats await us in the coming years.

It is predicted that by 2040 a significant proportion of the world's population, potentially 40%, will face severe water scarcity.

Climate change≫widespread and frequent droughts, floods.

And new research (Dec 2024) shows a 36% increase in glacier loss between 2012 and 2023.

How to feed millions in the face of severe water scarcity?

How to at least partially reduce migration from third countries (main cause of poverty, hunger)?

How much will food prices rise?

How will this affect migration?

The disadvantages of existing smart irrigation systems are high initial costs and technical complexity, e.g. calibration of expensive moisture sensors.

As a partial and critical solution to the problem of global water security, I propose to discuss two projects.

The first project is smart irrigation based on Siemens Logo 8 controller, actually ready, two variants.

The second project Smart ditch irrigation systems. Smart management of irrigation canals, also based on SIEMENS LOGO 8.

Mainideas:

• To achieve the most accurate, layer-by-layer irrigation of the soil as the root system grows, taking into account the residual moisture in the soil. This allows you to maximize water savings and increase yields without over- and under-irrigation, at low cost!
• affordability even for small plots of land (uplands, mountainous areas) for growing crops where internet connectivity is difficult;
• Make a ready-made affordable boxed version, together with customized software for the client, instructions and video tutorials.

First of all for developing countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America.

Poverty, poverty≫migration!

• CLIENT INSTALLS, CLIENT RUNS!

First project - intelligent irrigation based on Siemens Logo 8 controller, actually ready for zones without internet, two variants.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAqMzcBH7MY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXFdn42KOCA&t=4s

- the video is in Russian, I apologise. But I have corrected the subtitles.

Attached two files with full description of SmIrr I & SmIrr II.

It is necessary to finalise ...

SmIrr II file

There are difficulties here.

I applied to eight Kazakh and Ukrainian agronomists, I did not get a clear answer.

I applied to agro-universities - there are no strong soil biologists!

It is very difficult to find competent specialists in the colonies of the Russian Empire.

We need agronomists, soil biologists, and a laboratory.

To determine the exact water saving, it is necessary to conduct experiments.

Determine the thresholds of this sensor in percentage ratio for different soils.

My opinion is that these moisture sensors in version 2 can be used for all types of soils.

Even soils with low water-holding capacity (here the frequency of watering increases≫often leads to overwatering≫very negative scenarios).

Here the 2nd variant is just suitable, when between two planned irrigations there is soil drying≫irrigation of dry sectors with the basic volume of water.

The base water volume is the volume during the initial irrigation period.

Experiment with summer-autumn planting.

Centimetre-by-centimetre irrigation - every 5 days dig up the plant and determine the next volume of water from the root system.

Summer-autumn planting is a partial solution to food security.

Vegetables and herbs with a short vegetation period.

Why do I have irrigation on schedule when all systems have irrigation on low moisture demand (but I also have the controller polling sectors for dryness and irrigating sectors with dry soil).

2015. We have a cottage and 5 acres outside of town, a garden (perimeter) and a vegetable garden - tomatoes, peppers, aubergine, courgettes.

All of this has been looked after by my father-in-law.

He leaves for a month, asks me to do irrigation twice a week!!!!

There is a lot of work, I do not have time, I irrigate once a week (furrow irrigation).

- This is already in the fruiting period.

Fertilisers, pesticides and other chemicals were not used at all.

We are in the south of Kazakhstan, Shymkent, in the summer temperature range on average 35-45C (sometimes over 50C).

Tomatoes variety ‘Bull Heart’, each year the weight of the fruit is about 400-600 grams.

The harvest turned out a little smaller in size, 400-500 grams (only for the house), but every second cracked, grey seams were formed!

A little quarrel with the agronomist (experience of 35 years) - he argued that in our climatology and our soil (serozem) tomatoes with drip irrigation should be irrigated every day at 6 litres / bush.

- small yield losses while saving water by half!

The second project: intelligent irrigation systems for ditches.

Can also be applied for - Intelligent Irrigation System Management.

Irrigation management [attached]

Ready in drawings and software.

Irrigation of all sectors on schedule.

Some non-standard ideas can be patented.

For example: - to determine the water flow in the ditch, canal. Requires a mini PC, Siemens Logo 8, XKC-Y25 sensors, and a variable potentiometer.

There are only experiments in the laboratory.

BCUs, when water enters the ditch, autonomously control the irrigation of their sectors.

In doing so, the BCU and the MLSMS soil moisture sensors send signals to the receiver of the Siemens Logo 8 controller.

The controller, receiving this data:

• Along with the data on water speed and level measurements, everything is sent to the mini PC to determine the water flow;

• Manages central gateways.

If there is the Internet, then the scenarios of expected precipitation work.

Multi-level soil moisture sensors – layer-by-layer precision irrigation!

Instead of a gate valve (a metal gate valve for opening and closing the locks), a rubber inflatable cylinder (plug).

The cylinder is filled with air - shuts off the water in the pipe, the air is released - opens the pipe for the passage of water. 

Foothills, Almaty (photo from the plane). The contours of each sector are clearly visible.

The first project in two versions [all attached]

SmIrrI

Smart layer-by-layer irrigation with multilevel MLSMS sensors. I version https://1drv.ms/b/c/c0dc26eeef1238c5/EUqlLpAv8EVGqMsGSncXXt0BOvu0Gu6aIu6f-sP7ceXdfQ?e=ydiaTc 

SmIrr II

Smart layer-by-layer irrigation with multilevel MLSMS sensors. II version https://1drv.ms/b/c/c0dc26eeef1238c5/EWTemoAlnP9BmAFyly1AMREBOfEaWm40_2NjQbJoeSam_w?e=A8Rq76

Second project -Irrigation management  https://1drv.ms/b/c/c0dc26eeef1238c5/ESl4jdCq_NpLtc9pMHLox3ABINtdLb1bM7sV_ItJqzrPLw?e=ASoW0A

- it is possible to automate irrigation in mountainous areas, foothills, taking into account the water discharge for each irrigation sector and for each section of the irrigation canal.

Using the same algorithms and with the same equipment (slightly modified), it is possible to create a project for the management of irrigation canals.

Also, to create a very affordable water flow measurement system based on the Siemens Logo8.

Questions

1. Evapotranspiration (ET)

Probably, over the past year, I have read dozens of scientific articles on this topic, complex calculation methods with 4 or 5 parameters + plant coefficient, complex relationships between meteorological variables and water loss processes + hydrological modeling, and so on.

Simplified version.

In my program on video, I took one parameter so far - the air temperature.

At T 35°C and above, 10% is added to the basic volume of water.

at T 40°C and above, 20% is added to the basic volume of water.

- Is the ratio normal?

The second important parameter, in my opinion, is wind speed.

If the wind speed is 5 m/s and 10 m/s, the question is, how much will I need to add?

- Maybe - add 5% to the temperature of 10% and 20% at a speed of 5 m/s, And at a speed of 10 m/s + 10%?

Another argument why the simplified version is a photo with a temperature of 47°C for 04.07.25 (Corolla 2008).

Just for the sake of interest, I looked through the data from 5 sites of weather forecast servers for 04.07, everywhere the temperature forecast was 41-42 ° C, but in fact it was 47 ° C.

I tested it on the second car as well, Santa Fe 2023, temperature 46°C. The other day I checked in the archives - the temperature is already 43.8, 44, 44.8!

Surely other weather data also have a large error.

Therefore, simplified ET!

Take into account only two parameters - air temperature and wind speed! At the same time, autonomous work without the Internet (in developing countries where there are problems with the Internet), simplified ET only by sensor readings!

What am I wrong about?

Question 2.

We can connect up to 10-12 irrigation sectors to a maximum of 10-12 per controller. Sectors can be divided into blocks, each block is a separate crop.Irrigation algorithms.

Version 1

The farmer, as the root system develops, after a certain time, switches multi-level humidity sensors, between levels of 2-3 cm.

Irrigation according to the schedule is set by the agronomist, the irrigation schedule is set by dryness - the controller automatically polls the sensors twice a day, if it detects dry sectors, it irrigates.

Irrigates until the fixed (at that time) level of the humidity sensor is triggered.

THAT IS, some sector is already watered, but the planned irrigation according to the schedule is already tomorrow. Only part of the volume of water will be used, because the soil is still wet after yesterday's watering.

THAT IS, yesterday's moisture (residual moisture) and today's moisture are summed up.

The main thing here is that residual moisture is taken into account!

There is no need for ET, since there is an irrigation schedule for dryness, the controller does a survey twice a day!

Where am I going wrong?

Question 3. Version 2

Irrigation is set according to the schedule by the agronomist, but each time period, as the root system develops, the program automatically adds a percentage to the initial base volume. You can make any number of periods and any percentages!Percentages and periods are also set by the agronomist.

The Simplified ET subroutine is running.

Here the humidity sensor has :

- 1 level, if the root system of vegetables is no more than 0.4 m (base volume of water);

- 2 levels, if the root system is up to 1 m (two basic volumes of water).

Dryness Irrigation Schedule – The controller also polls the sensors twice every day. When the controller detects a dry sector, it tops up the base volume (i.e. to a fixed level (the MLSMS sensor is triggered), until the next scheduled irrigation.

If today the dry sector is watered, and tomorrow there is planned irrigation, then in version 1 we have no overflows.

In the second version, there may be an overflow.

The question is - can he put a restriction?

For example, if a dry sector is detected two days before the scheduled irrigation, then there will be no irrigation!

- Won't it be a big stress for plants?

After all, the golden rule of the agronomist is that it is better to underfill than to overfill!

Or should I make a different algorithm? Leave only the dryness irrigation schedule.

Then, if there are different crops, the controller will irrigate different blocks (or even separate sectors) at different times according to the layer-by-layer irrigation program "by centimeters".

Which option is more realistic?

What would you like to advise?

Questions 4.

Scenarios of expected precipitation (version 2)

– if precipitation is expected in the next 2 days with a probability of 10 mm or more, then the controller suspends irrigation, waits for precipitation to fall and only after it irries - this is insurance against overflows!

Again, today we have a planned watering, but the day after tomorrow precipitation with a good volume!

- Will it not be a big stress for plants (especially for moisture-loving ones)?