New project grant - SENSIRRIKA - Advanced sensor systems for precision irrigation in karst landscape

LISS in partnership with dr. Monika Zovko from Department of Soil Amelioration of Faculty of Agriculture won research grant from Croatian Science Foundation for project SENSIRRIKA - Advanced sensor systems for precision irrigation in karst landscape. The project starts in March 2017 and will last for 4 years. 

First part of the research aims to development of an advanced electromagnetic (EM) karst soil moisture sensor. Second part of the research refers to cost-effective sensors for plant water balance monitoring that need to be densely deployed due to high within-field variability of soil. The sensors are ultra low power and use energy harvesting. They form wireless sensor network providing sensor data integration over field area. The network uses open communication technologies enabling scalability and upgrading. In third part of the research data from a field demonstrator are agronomically validated. In this project we will use our expertise in irrigation of karst; modelling of EM soil properties and design of advanced EM sensors; application of wireless sensor networks in agriculture; and design of ultra low power sensor interfaces, energy harvesting systems and networked embedded systems. We will demonstrate the developed system in field and transfer the knowledge and experiences to professional community and industry.