Monitoreo de precipitación y humedad de suelos
Ministerio de Ganadería, Agricultura y Pesca
Context
Together with the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, we are working within the framework of the project Building Resilience to Climate Change and Variability in Vulnerable Small Producers.
The general objective of the project is to contribute to the creation of national capacity to adapt to variability and climate change, focusing on a critical sector of the national economy, employment and exports, such as small rural producers.
Solution
To meet this objective, we are in charge of supplying, installing and maintaining operational six rain gauge stations scattered within the Uruguayan territory.
The stations are made up of an automatic rain gauge, soil moisture sensors, automatic data transmission system and solar energy supply using batteries and solar panels, which allows completely autonomous operation without the need to recharge the batteries manually.
The rain gauges used are of high quality and globally certified, it is manufactured and assembled by EML in the United Kingdom, model SBS314, it has a capture surface of 314 cm2 and an aluminum coated housing specially built to withstand harsh conditions. The soil moisture sensors are placed two per site at depths of 20 and 40 cm respectively.
Our RTU-X team is in charge of obtaining the data from the sensors and sending them in real time through the cellular network to the MGAP servers, ensuring the reliability of their transmission for correct viewing.
As a final result, the data collected allows obtaining information about the amount of precipitation and the level of water absorption in the land. These help to predict the growth of pastures and in this way inform rural producers the best way to rotate livestock in their fields.
