In the West the reality is that water allocations and water use efficiency by growers is becoming more and more closely-examined by regulators, by legislators, and by society at large. Water is scarce. Long-term we’re looking at more and more volatility, and that volatility will exist within a water infrastructure that was designed for a different era. With our growing population, more unpredictable precipitation, accuracy of data is the first and best defense when water use is our challenge.
When you’re dealing with agricultural water, it used to be that all people worried about was the application of water to a farm — did it increase or decrease? That was the common way of looking at that resource, whether you were conserving, or putting some back to the grid. Focusing on consumed water specifically, is only the beginning of the analysis.
When you’re talking about moving some of that water, you have to be very precise. It’s the same kind of audit trail you would get from your CPA on your bank accounts if you were going in front of the IRS. It’s very similar to the level of analytics we’re applying to that crop water budget.