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Effects Of Wi-Fi-Enabled Smart Irrigation Controllers On Water Use And Plant Health Of Residential Landscapes In The Intermountain West, Shane R. Evans

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Residential and commercial landscapes provide home and business owners with several benefits. These benefits range from improved air quality and flood control to the reduction of noise and breakdown of organic chemicals. However, these landscapes are routinely overwatered which can lead to plant disease, nutrient pollution, and large amounts of water being wasted. Utah State University, in conjunction with the Center for Water Efficient Landscaping (CWEL), the Utah Division of Natural Resources and Weber Basin Water Conservancy District, conducted an experiment to determine if Wi-Fi-enabled smart irrigation controllers conserve water as compared to average residential irrigation amounts and manually programmed …

Examination And Empirical Forecast Of Wheat Yield In Northwest India Based On Climate And Socio-Economic Factors, Avik Mukherjee

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study summarizes the findings of research organized in two parts. The first part includes the impact of climate and socio-economic factors that affected wheat yield in northwest India during the 2000s. The second part focused on the forecast of average wheat yield for the two highest wheat producing states Punjab and Haryana.

Initial study focused on the impact of climate factors on wheat yield in northwest India. It has been found that above normal temperature coupled with water shortage i.e. irregular irrigation and low soil moisture contributed to the prolonged yield reduction during 2002-2010.

Next, we reviewed the socio-economic …

Development And Evaluation Of An Automated Linear Move Fertigation System For Cotton Using Active Remote Sensing, Stewart Bell

All Theses

Optimum nitrogen (N) application is essential to the economic and environmental sustainability of cotton production. Variable-rate N fertigation could potentially help farmers optimize N applications, but current overhead irrigation systems normally lack automated site-specific variable-rate fertigation capabilities. The objective of this research was to develop and evaluate an automated variable-rate N fertigation system based on real-time Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) measurements from crop sensors integrated with a lateral move irrigation system. For this purpose, NDVI crop sensors and a flow meter were integrated with Arduino microcontrollers and an automated fertigation system was constructed. A computer program was developed to …

Increasing Groundwater Recharge Activity In The San Joaquin Valley Of California, Jacob Willhite, Jacob Willhite

Agricultural Education and Communication

Over the past several decades, groundwater has become a primary source of water used for agriculture in California. Surface water available for agricultural use has depleted due to declining rain totals and reallocation to environmental purposes. As a result, groundwater overdraft has become a severe challenge, especially in the San Joaquin Valley of California. This excessive overdraft causes a plethora of issues, one of the most serious being land subsidence (Faunt, Sneed, Traum, & Brandt, 2016). Studies suggest some areas of the San Joaquin Valley have experienced more than a 28-foot drop in the land level since the 1970’s (Alley …

Effect Of Management Decisions On Corn Yield Productivity And Stability In Environments With Contrasting Water Availability, Juan Ignacio Di Salvo

Theses and Dissertations--Plant and Soil Sciences

Corn (Zea Mays L.) is a grain crop with large productivity, but also elevated evapotranspiration demand, making it highly susceptible to periods of water stress occurring during critical reproductive stages. Environmental conditions in Kentucky make it possible to grow corn under rainfed conditions, but the crop is still likely to experience water stress during some times of the growing season depending on the year and location. There is limited information on the size of the yield gap due to water stress in Kentucky, and the timing and intensity of water deficit.

In addition, evaluating the interactive effects of hybrid …