Upon driving through Salinas, California this past week, we came across a new, compressed SWIIM set-up for telemetry in the field, utilized to gather flow data as a part of the water balance calculations we perform for our clients. If you blink while heading through the field, you’ll almost miss it!
This unit sits at the base of a flow meter and transmits water delivery data every 15 seconds to the SWIIM cloud. We then take this flow data and mesh it with consumption data through a combination of weather stations and two satellites as they fly over head every week.
The results is a detailed “statement of water use,” show all water application events (surface water, groundwater and precipitation), as well as the resulting consumption amount. Similar to a checkbook ledger for your bank accounts.
This type of data provides water use efficiency data, as well as an agronomic planning tool. It also allows you to create a baseline water budget to improve upon, and hold onto the data in case your allocation is reduced as a result o the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, or by your district in the case of surface water supplies.