"Web-based Irrigation Scheduling Tools: IrrigWise and IrrigWise-PRISM" by Ripendra Awal at the 2023 Water for Food Global Conference. A recording of the presentation can be found on the conference playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSBeKOIXsg3JNyPowwJj6NDSpx4vlnCYj.

1. Web-based Irrigation
Scheduling Tools: IrrigWise
and IrrigWise-PRISM
Ripendra Awal
College of Agriculture and Human Sciences
Prairie View A&M University
Prairie View, TX

2. Contents
 Introduction
 Objective of the study
 Materials and methods
 Step by step procedure to use IrrigWise
 Summary

3. Introduction
• Soil-Based Irrigation Scheduling
• Weather-Based Irrigation Scheduling
• Plant-Based Irrigation Scheduling
• Combination of two or more approaches
Irrigation scheduling is the process of
determining the correct frequency and
duration of watering (when to irrigate
and for how long to irrigate?).
Irrigation scheduling methods

4. Introduction
Methods used in deciding when to irrigate (Data source: USDA, 2014 and 2019).

5. Web based irrigation scheduling tools in Texas
S. No. Web based tools (Texas) Developed by
No. of
station
Area covered
No. of
Crop type
Crops
1
TAWC Solutions Irrigation
Scheduling Tool
Texas Alliance for Water
Conservation (TAWC)
>116 Texas High plains 3 NHP-Corn, NHP-Cotton, NHP-Sorghum
2 Water Management
Texas A&M AgriLife Research
& Extension
10 Texas High Plains 10
Corn - Short Season, Cotton - North Plains,
Sorghum - Short Season, Peanuts - Short Season,
Soybeans, Wheat, Corn - Long Season, Cotton -
South Plains, Peanuts - Long Season, Sorghum -
Long Season
3 TexasET
Irrigation Technology
Program, Texas A&M AgriLife
Extension
>61 Statewide > 10
6 Crop types of Texas High Plains (Corn - Full
season, Corn - Short Season, Cotton, Peanuts,
Sorghum - Full season, Sorghum - Short season,
Soybean and Winter Wheat); and All crop types
of FAO manual
4 Water My Yard Texas A&M AgriLife Extension > 55
Bryan/College Station, City of Irving, City
of San Angelo, Lower Colorado River
Authority, North Texas Municipal Water
District, Park Cities Municipal Utility
District, Upper Trinity Regional Water
district
1
Warm season turf grasses (such as St. Augustine,
Bermuda, Zoysia, and Buffalo)
5 MyCWP
Crop Weather Program, Texas
A&M AgriLife Research &
Extension Center at Corpus
Christi
19 Coastal plains 1 Cotton

6. Contents
 Introduction
 Objective of the study
 Materials and methods
 Step by step procedure to use IrrigWise
 Summary

7. Objectives of the study
 Develop a new irrigation scheduling tool, IrrigWise, to provide site-
specific near real-time irrigation scheduling data (when to irrigate and
for how long to irrigate?) for crops and urban landscape in Texas.
 Expand the capability of IrrigWise by incorporating daily gridded
climate data, Parameter elevation Regression on Independent Slopes
Model (PRISM) data allows users to establish irrigation scheduling
programs for any crop grown in a specific location across the US.

8. Contents
 Introduction
 Objective of the study
 Materials and methods
 Step by step procedure to use IrrigWise
 Summary

9. Data: Climate, irrigation system, soil and crops
Climate data: Daily rainfall and evapotranspiration data from
• West Texas Mesonet, Texas Tech University
• U.S. Climate Reference Network
• Texas ET Network, Texas A&M Agrilife Extension
• TexMesonet, Texas Water Development Board
• Soil Climate Analysis Network, NRCS
• Parameter elevation Regression on Independent Slopes Model
(PRISM): Tmax, Tmin and Precipitation. Daily Reference
evapotranspiration is calculated using Hargreaves Samani
Equation.
IrrigWise-
PRISM
IrrigWise

10. Data: Climate, irrigation system, soil and crops
Soil data: Field capacity, Permanent wilting point and Available
water‐holding capacity of common soils or site-specific soil from online
data of Soil Survey Geographic Database (SSURGO).
Crop data: Crop development dates (Planting/Emergence, Crop canopy
cover exceeds 10% of field, 70% of field, Crop initial maturation, End of
growing season), Crop coefficients (Initial, Full Cover and Final), Root
depths (starting and maximum), Management allowable depletion
Forecasted weather data: National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration, National Weather Service (Tmax, Tmin, and Rainfall).

11. Weather station networks included in IrrigWise

12. Installation of Weather Stations
in collaboration with
Texas Water Development Board
PVAMU - Weather Station Networks
Soil moisture sensors (TEROS 12)
(5, 10, 20 and 50 cm)
Rain gauges
(Tipping + Weighing)
• Refugio
• Navarro
• Johnson
• Victoria

13. Various components of the soil water content and
water stress
MAD (Management Allowable Depletion):
Soil water content below which the plant
experiences increasing water stress.

14. Crop root zone depth
End of growing
season
Maximum
0.0
1.0
2.0
3.0
4.0
120 170 220 270
Emergence
date
Crop canopy full
cover, 70-80% of field
Day of year
Root zone
depth (ft)
Beginning

15. Crop coefficient
0.0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
1.2
120 170 220 270
Crop initial
maturation
Canopy exceeds
10% of field Day of year
Crop
Coefficient
Full Cover
Final
Initial
𝐸𝑇𝑐 = 𝐾𝑐 × 𝐸𝑇𝑜
Crop evapotranspiration
Kc ini
Kc mid
Kc end

16. Schematic diagram of mobile web app for irrigation
scheduling (IrrigWise & IrrigWise-PRISM)
https://play.google.com/store
WeatherAndSoil

17. WeatherAndSoil: A Site-Specific Soil Parameters and
Weather Forecast Android App
(https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=edu.pvamu.weatherandsoil&hl=en_US)
Map: search option Hourly and daily forecasted weather data Site specific soil data
App introduction

18. Contents
 Introduction
 Objective of the study
 Materials and methods
 Step by step procedure to use IrrigWise
 Summary

19. Irrigation scheduling tool
http://irrigwise.pvamu.edu/introduction
(Windows Server at PVAMU)
Links to launch IrrigWise:
http://149.165.154.80/AgroNew/
(Linux Server Jetstream2 at TACC - UT Austin)
TACC: Texas Advanced Computing Center
Or

20. Irrigation scheduling tool

21. Irrigation scheduling tool

22. Irrigation scheduling tool

23. Irrigation scheduling tool Adding new field

24. Irrigation scheduling tool Adding new field

25. Irrigation scheduling tool
Generating
report

26. Irrigation scheduling tool Graphical results

27. Irrigation scheduling tool
Graphical display
(Current water
storage, FC, WP
and MAD without
irrigation)

28. Irrigation scheduling tool
Irrigation –
07/12, 3.5 in

29. Irrigation scheduling tool
Graphical display
(Current water
storage, FC, WP
and MAD with
irrigation)

30. Irrigation scheduling tool
Irrigation
Recommendation –
Email notification

31. Contents
 Introduction
 Objective of the study
 Materials and methods
 Step by step procedure to use IrrigWise
 Summary

32. Summary
 Both IrrigWise and Irrig-Wise-PRISM allow the users to select the
appropriate crop and soil-related parameters of their interest.
 These two tools track the daily values of the water budget components of
the field of interest, including irrigation amount and near-real-time
weather data.
 These tools also predict the root zone soil water content dynamics of the
selected field for five consecutive days based on forecasted weather
data and projected crop water uptakes.
 Wide use of these tools by the farming and urban communities could
help improve irrigation management of crops and urban landscape in
Texas and the contiguous US.

33. http://irrigwise.pvamu.edu/introduction/

34. IManSys Model
IManSys is a numerical simulation model that combines
a water balance approach with crop specific growth
parameters, soil hydrologic properties, site-specific
weather data, crop- and region-specific growing season,
and irrigation system efficiency to calculate crop specific
irrigation requirements and major components of the
water budget.

35. November 10, 2022
(https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.131326)

36. A. Portland, OR
B. San Jose, CA
C. Salt Lake City, UT
D. Kansas City, MO
E. Austin, TX
F. Buffalo, NY
G. Raleigh, NC
H. Jacksonville, FL
Site Selection

37. Acknowledgements
 This work was supported by the CBG grant no. 2017-38821-26410/project
accession no. 1012198 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
 This work used the Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment
(XSEDE) IU/TACC (Jetstream) through allocation TG-ENG170027.