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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - SWAMP (Smart Water Management Platform)

Teaser

Summary

The SWAMP project develops IoT based methods and approaches for smart water management in precision irrigation domain, and pilots them in Italy, Spain, and Brazil. The main problem with irrigation-based agriculture is the balancing of the water need of crop with the amount of water spread on the field. The second problem is ensuring the availability of water to everyone who needs it. Thirdly, the cost of irrigation water has become significant. The energy needed for pumping and desalination or purifying water is the main source of cost.

Water is vital for ensuring food security to the worldâ€™s population, and agriculture is the biggest consumer amounting for 70% of freshwater. In attempts to avoid under-irrigation, farmers feed more water than is needed resulting not only to productivity losses, but also water is wasted. Therefore, technology should be developed and deployed for sensing the level of water needed by the plantation and for flowing the water to places where and when needed. The SWAMP project addresses these issues by use of the Internet of Things (IoT), data analytics, autonomous devices and other related technologies.

The challenges addressed by SWAMP project are following: 1) Reducing effort in software development for IoT-based smart applications. 2) Automating advanced platforms and integrating different technologies and components. 3) The integration of heterogeneous and advanced sensors, particularly flying sensors (drones) providing precision in the water supply for irrigation. 4) The use of a Software Platform together with technologies such as IoT, Big Data, Cloud/Fog and drones for the deployment of pilot applications for smart water management. 5) Proposing, testing and validating new business models for using IoT in smart water management settings. 6) Technological components must be flexible and adaptable enough in order to adapt to different contexts and to be replicable to different locations and contexts.

Work performed

During the first 12-month period, the following efforts have been done:
1. We have defined initial SWAMP platform architecture that outlines the main components and interfaces of the platform. Lot of discussion and analysis has been done to understand how to merge SEPA and FIWARE approaches and how Linked Data ideas could be integrated into the platform. We have published the project concept and the architecture ideas in two conference papers.
2. We have analysed the SWAMP pilots and specified the roadmap of the implementation of pilots. We have visited all four pilot sites, Emilia Romagna, Cartagena, Guaspari, and MATOPIBA. Based on the visits we have adjusted the architecture and platform characteristics and planed how to achieve the different goals of each pilot.
3. We have analysed the availability of sensor solutions targeted to soil property, plant, and weather measurements. Sensors development activities were launched, especially for soil moisture analysis covering different root depths. We have prepared and tested four sensor prototypes.
4. Various communication solutions have been analysed and tested also at field conditions. We have tested both commercial and own prototype gateways. Prototype gateway with RFID, Bluetooth, LoRA and 4G communication has been developed based on Raspberry Pi. Target use is to serve as mobile gateway attached to drone and as local gateway at the field.
5. We have started SWAMP cloud platform implementation with data collection part. We have acquired hardware servers for hosting the platform and we have conducted first data collection and visualisation experiments. We have started efforts for connecting all pilots to common server and cloud.
6. We have acquired and installed an automatic gate and needed water level measurement infrastructure in Italian pilot and its water distribution canals. In addition, we have created canal geometry models, and developed hydraulic models to understand how the water distribution network works, and investigated dynamics of networks and water allocation to farmers. Work related to optimisation of water distribution has been started.
7. We have started to develop services for water need estimation of plants. The crop-based approach uses drones, imaging, and analytics in studying the conditions of plants. The soil-based approach relies on soil property measurements using sensors. The aim is to try to combine them both.
8. The project has designed and prototyped a drone for the needs of SWAMP pilots. Project has acquired a multispectral camera for the drone, and developed and tested autonomous flying capabilities for drone. We have done data collection from RFID and low range radio sensors using mobile gateway as a payload. Project has started the development of IoT robot for autonomous analysis of water quality.
9. Project practices, dissemination, communication, and innovation and exploitation support has been developed. The project has established a good partnership between partners. Almost all work has been done as a team with members from both sides of Atlantic in a co-creation spirit. For specific topics such as use drones and common information model we have established task forces aiming to solve the issues without other project constraints.

Final results

SWAMP has started the development of smart water management platform for precision irrigation. It will be based on advanced IoT and semantic web concepts. The plan is to extend the FIWARE IoT platform with semantic web capabilities and intelligent solutions for balancing water consumption with plants water needs. Intelligence will be achieved by using digital twin concepts for understanding the crop and soil conditions at farms. The situational awareness for the simulation of water need will be created both from the direct measures of the soil and form the multi-spectral imaging. This heterogeneous analysis combines drone-based and IoT robot based sensing with artificial intelligence and machine learning.
SWAMP will create an advanced system with lot of autonomy in it. It extends the use of drones beyond normal imaging to IoT based data collection. Autonomous execution of different mission are key target. Automation is also a target in irrigation. Precise control of soil moisture in plants root systems needs more fine-grained irrigation that in turn needs to be executed with less human interaction as done today. This has positive impact to total water consumption. The SWAMP also integrates the water distribution and water consumption in the same decision making system that helps us to eliminate the waste of water typical in large-scale water distribution networks in rural areas. This is achieved with better understanding of irrigation needs in the area and with more need based scheduling of water distribution.
Agriculture consumers about 70% of fresh water. Climate change, increasing population, and pollution are making water a very critical and limited resource. SWAMP will address these challenges. Precision irrigation and smart water distribution will optimise the efficiency of water use. It will increase the amount of crop, it will improve the quality of crop, it will save the water, and it will save the energy needed in pumping the water, it will save the environment. The outcome will be better availability of water, better possibilities to ensure the fairness of water distribution, and better life for people.