Abstract

Irrigation by help of freshwater resources in agricultural areas has a crucial importance. Because of highly increasing demand for freshwater, optimal usage of water resources has been provided with greater extent by automation technology and its apparatus such as solar power, drip irrigation, sensors and remote control. Traditional instrumentation based on discrete and wired solutions, presents many difficulties on measuring and control systems especially over the large geographical areas. This paper describes an application of a wireless sensor network for low-cost wireless controlled irrigation solution and real time monitoring of water content of soil. Data acquisition is performed by using solar powered wireless acquisition stations for the purpose of control of valves for irrigation. The designed system has 3 units namely: base station unit (BSU), valve unit (VU) and sensor unit (SU). The obtained irrigation system not only prevents the moisture stress of trees and salification, but also provides an efficient use of fresh water resource. In addition, the developed irrigation method removes the need for workmanship for flooding irrigation. The designed system was applied to an area of 8 decares in a venue located in central Anatolia for controlling drip irrigation of dwarf cherry trees.

Key words: Wireless soil moisture sensor, irrigation, real time monitoring, drip irrigation, automation.