Drip Irrigation Soil-Adapted Sector Design and Optimal Location of Moisture Sensors: A Case Study in a Vineyard Plot

Abstract

To optimise sector design in drip irrigation systems, a two-stage procedure is presented and applied in a commercial vineyard plot. Soil apparent electrical conductivity (ECa) mapping and soil purposive sampling are the two stages on which the proposal is based. Briefly, ECa data to wet bulb depth provided by the VERIS 3100 soil sensor were mapped before planting using block ordinary kriging. Looking for simplicity and practicality, only two ECa classes were delineated from the ECa map (k-means algorithm) to delimit two potential soil classes within the plot with possible different properties in terms of potential soil water content and/or soil water regime. Contrasting the difference between ECa classes (through discriminant analysis of soil properties at different systematic sampling locations), irrigation sectors were then designed in size and shape to match the previous soil zoning. Taking advantage of the points used for soil sampling, two of these locations were finally selected as candidates to install moisture sensors according to the purposive soil sampling theory. As these two spatial points are expectedly the most representative of each soil class, moisture information in these areas can be taken as a basis for better decision-making for vineyard irrigation management.