Remote reading of irrigation water meters
Riverland irrigation districts, SA
Total funding: $9.90 million with funding of $2.19 million (plus GST) from the Australian Government, $7.88 million from the Central Irrigation Trust.
About the project
The project will demonstrate how introducing innovative irrigation metering technology and data systems can improve water use efficiency. It will allow the Central Irrigation Trust based at Barmera to transfer consumption and flow data from 2300 electronic water meters on irrigation farms to a central computer system every 15 minutes. This will allow farmers and system managers live access to information on flow and consumption 24 hours a day seven days a week.
Project benefits
The project will:
- give irrigators access to flow and consumption data to maximise water use efficiency
- provide information that leads to more precise irrigation schedules improving crop productivity and providing water savings of 1100 megalitres per year
- build capacity of water planners to analyse how water is supplied and improve performance, and
- increase ability to fine tune water delivery to meet critical demands.
The project will advance the National Water Initiative objectives of improving water resource accounting and increasing water use efficiency in agriculture.
Progress to July 2008
The project has successfully trialled telemetry technology on 365 water meters within Central Irrigation Trusts irrigation district. 20 000 megalitres of water is now being metered using improved technologies. This has enabled growers to order and use their water allocations more efficiently.
Water Smart Australia projects are funded by the Australian Government's framework, Water for the Future.
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