| dc.description.abstract | Kalpitiya, is an important agro ecological region in Sri Lanka, which has greatly
strengthened the country’s economy and food security. However, intensive farming
practices in Kalpitiya have triggered its ground water depletion and pollution isuses.
The objective of this study is to check the feasibility of a new sensor-based irrigation
system against the prevailing groundwater depletion and pollution issues in
Kalpitiya. The new system was used to automate a sprinkler kit by monitoring
underground moisture contents via its high-frequency soil water content sensors
placed at 15, 45 and 90 cm depths. During the study, irrigation uniformity and
adequacy of the automated sprinkler kit (T1) were compared over those of the
sprinklers operated with common farmers’ experience based (T2) and timer
controlled (T3) irrigations. T2 and T3 were also provided with the soil moisture
detection facility as same as in T1. According to the results, the irrigation
uniformities of T1, T2 and T3 were within an acceptable range (83-88%), but only
T1 had 60% irrigation adequacy within 30cm depth. Further, soil water telemetric
graphs and adequacy values also proved that deep percolation was considerably
higher in T2 and T3 over T1. The study confirmed that new sensor-based irrigation
control was capable in saving irrigation water and minimising groundwater
leaching through its real-time soil moisture-sensing mechanism. Thus, the new
technique had the potential to be used against ground water depletion and pollution
issues in Kalpitiya. | en_US |
