Development of value selection method for choosing between alternative soil moisture sensors

Product Information

The Australian Irrigation Technology Centre (AITC) identified in its 1993 [1] survey of irrigators the low level of adoption of soil moisture sensing devices (less than 7%), despite there being a number of soil water sensors which could be used by irrigators to help schedule irrigation. There is a large range of devices available commercially which make various claims about measuring and monitoring soil moisture status.

The operation of these devices is based on a number of different principles. One of the difficulties for any prospective purchaser of a system is to be able to understand exactly what is being measured, what this measurement can be used for and what it means in terms of scheduling irrigation.