Inflo eNewsletter

Australia’s first dedicated Irrigation Server

A CRC IF team, bringing together CSIRO and Melbourne University have set up Australia’s first dedicated irrigation server with the sole task of providing the irrigation sector with IT platform for improving irrigation decisions and productivity.

The server, known as the irriGATEWAY, is a gateway to many irrigation services across a number of technologies that include internet web-pages and SmartPhone programs.

Currently the engineering team are testing a number of services to help irrigators improve their water use efficiency. These services include SMS weather and irrigation decision support services which deliver daily information on water requirements of crops to irrigators through SMS, allowing them to better schedule irrigations. The Tools for Profitability and Longevity project is currently trialling the service with irrigators in the Griffith, Hay, Finley and Tullakool areas. While in the north the South East Queensland Irrigation Futures project is also testing the service with a number of irrigators.

The server also hosts information for assisting irrigators, such as soil type maps using Google Earth services and next-generation web-based decision support systems.

The server can send out information to anywhere in the world via the internet using multiple IT mediums such as web and SMS. Applications that are currently being developed for south eastern Australia could be modified and then rolled out nationally and internationally.

As these products are finalised these will become available to a wider audience either through the CRC's website or through commerical arrangements. We will keep you informed via INFLO as this exciting technology develops.

Image: Dr John Hornbuckle and PhD student Nick Car with the server.

www.irrigateway.net

Contacts:
Dr Evan Christen