Remote soil moisture data collection in southern Alberta

Despite the ability of soil moisture observations to significantly increase agricultural water use efficiency and provide important increases in yield and product quality, they remain under-utilised in irrigation water management in Southern Alberta. Jadler Industries and Random Acronym are producers of the FieldTracker Telemetry Device for remote field data monitoring. The FieldTracker was designed for industrial operations that require real-time observation and reporting of variables such as flow rate, water level, temperature, and water chemistry. Currently, Jadler Industries and Random Acronym are incorporating weather and soil moisture sensors into a package aimed at the agricultural industry in Southern Alberta. Soil moisture content is measured indirectly by analyzing the behaviour of electric currents through soils. The base observations require multiple corrections before being translated to information that is relevant for farmers. Lethbridge College proposes to assist Jadler Industries and Random Acronym with this problem through an indoor experiment on a set of experimental soil bins. The goal of the experiment is to answer the following questions:

1. What level of correction and calibration is required for each of the selected sensors to provide an accurate and reliable output of soil moisture content?
2. Can calibration and transformation of VWC data to irrigation information be accomplished with a time series analysis method instead of laboratory experiment?