TriSCAN Agronomic User Manual
Monitoring, understanding and managing irrigated water and nutrients, so that they stay within the active crop’s root zone, is one of the key challenges in modern agriculture. This is necessary in order to develop long term, environmentally sustainable irrigation and land management practices. Today electronic sensor technology can be used in conjunction with analytical software to visualize and prevent leakage of water and nutrients from production systems into water tables and waterways through precision irrigation management.
Sentek Pty Ltd has developed a near continuous in-field fertilizer/salinity and soil moisture monitoring system called TriSCAN in order to help irrigators and land managers to efficiently utilize precious water resources and fertilizer. Implementation of this technology can lead to management of fertilizer, salinity and water movement to the benefit of the environment. It also has the potential to contribute to substantial savings in water, fertilizer and power (pumping costs) while at the same time increasing crop yields, quality and farm profits. Sustainable and profitable agriculture is the goal.
The TriSCAN sensor monitors soil water content and soil salinity on a near continuous basis. Sensors are placed at multiple depths on probes within the soil profile. Probes are connected to a data logger, where the data is recorded. Graphed data of soil water content and salinity of each depth level can be viewed simultaneously.
This manual describes the operation and use of the TriSCAN multi-sensor, profile probe and its data output, in the context of fertilizer, salinity and irrigation management. It introduces important definitions and terms, explains the problem and touches on the national and global impacts of salinity. It also stresses the importance of understanding the link between fertilizer management and salinity. TriSCAN features and applications are described, along with an explanation on how the sensor works. Known sensor specifications are provided.
The manual also covers principles of site selection, and details the process of configuring the probe for connection to a range of different logging systems. Data from these systems can be imported into Sentek’s customised irrigation and salinity management software, IrriMAX® 6 for graphical display
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