New management perspectives in pressurized on-demand irrigation systems using innovative smart control valves

Irrigated agriculture is currently one of the most water-consuming human activities at global level. Furthermore, in the next years, water demand for irrigation is expected to increase within a challenging framework characterized by the effects of climate change and dynamics such as the population increase. In this context and considering that up to now irrigation networks have experienced a limited access to innovation (such as e.g., several areas of the Mediterranean region, above all in the North African side), the opportunities offered by digitalization could be crucial in the next future. New technologies and IoT solutions can effectively improve the management of limited resources and the quality of service to users. In the present work, the advances in management of the irrigation networks that can be reached using a smart control valve, the GreenValveSystem (GVS), are discussed. The GVS is an innovative electro actuated control valve able to harvest part of the energy of the flow to enable high frequency monitoring of pressures and flow rate and real time operation on the valve, without the necessity of external power supply. It has been, up to now, positively tested and adopted in drinking water supply systems. A model of an on-demand pressurized irrigation network is used to provide, through hydraulic simulations, a proof-of-concept of the potential of such devices to support the selection and implementation of specific management strategies to limit (or even avoid) the occurrence of hydrant failures (i.e. an insufficient pressure or discharge ), and to guarantee an effective and sustainable use of water resources. In the study a procedure to find the best placement of the GVSs and some basilar management rules that limit failures is showed. This preliminary study demonstrates some of the improvement that the use of innovative devices based on IoT concepts, like cloud management of data and remote operations, can bring to water agencies and users.