Irrigation informatics is a newly emerging academic field that is a cross-disciplinary science using

informatics Informatics is the study of computational systems, especially those for data storage and retrieval. According to ACM ''Europe and'' ''Informatics Europe'', informatics is synonymous with computer science and computing as a profession, in which ...

to study the information flows and data management related to

irrigation Irrigation (also referred to as watering) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow Crop, crops, Landscape plant, landscape plants, and Lawn, lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,00 ...

. The field is one of many new informatics sub-specialities that uses the science of information, the practice of information processing, and the engineering of information systems to advance a biophysical science or engineering field.

Background

Agricultural productivity increases are eagerly sought by governments and industry, spurred by the realisation that world food production must double in the 21st century to feed growing populations
Madramootoo, C.A. and Fyles, H. 2010. Irrigation in the context of today's global food crisis, Irrig. and Drain. 59: 40–52 and that as irrigation makes up 36% of global food production,
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Water and food security, retrieved Sept. 2010 but that new land for irrigation growth is very limited,
, Irrigation Futures CRC media release "Improving irrigated agriculture - how far can we go?", retrieved Sept. 2010 irrigation efficiency must increase. Since irrigation science is a mature and stable field, irrigation researchers are looking to cross-disciplinary science to bring about production gains and informatics is one such science along with others such as social sciences, social science. Much of the driver for work in the area of irrigation informatics is the perceived success of other informatics fields such as

health informatics Health informatics is the field of science and engineering that aims at developing methods and technologies for the acquisition, processing, and study of patient data, which can come from different sources and modalities, such as electronic hea ...

Current research

Irrigation informatics is very much a part of the wider research into irrigation wherever

information technology Information technology (IT) is the use of computers to create, process, store, retrieve, and exchange all kinds of data . and information. IT forms part of information and communications technology (ICT). An information technology system (I ...

or data systems are used, however the term ''informatics'' is not always used to describe research involving computer systems and data management so that ''information science'' or ''information technology'' may alternatively be used. This leads to a great number of irrigation informatics articles not using the term ''irrigation informatics''. There are currently no formal publications (journals) that focus on ''irrigation informatics'' with the publication most likely to present articles on the topic bein
Computers and electronics in Agriculture
or one of the many irrigation science journals such a
Irrigation Science
Recent work in the general area of irrigation informatics has mentioned the exact phrase "Irrigation Informatics" with at least one publication in scientific conference proceedings using it in its title.
Car, N. J., Christen, E. W., Hornbuckle, J. W. and Moore, G. 2007. Towards a new generation of Irrigation Decision Support Systems - Irrigation Informatics?. In "MODSIM 2007 International Congress on Modelling and Simulation". Christchurch, New Zealand

Current implementations

Meteorological informatics, as with all informatics, are increasingly being used to handle the growing volumes of data that are available from sensors, remote sensing and scientific models. The Australian Bureau of Meteorology (Australia), Bureau of Meteorology has recently implemented an XML data format, known as the

Water Data Transfer Format Water Data Transfer Format (WDTF) is a data delivery standard implemented by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) that was jointly developed with the CSIRO. The standard, released in 2009, specifies both the format of and the techniques used ...

(WDTF) and standard to be used by Australian government agencies and meteorological data suppliers when delivering data to the Bureau. This format includes specifications for

evapotranspiration Evapotranspiration (ET) is the combined processes by which water moves from the earth’s surface into the atmosphere. It covers both water evaporation (movement of water to the air directly from soil, canopies, and water bodies) and transpi ...

and other weather parameters that are useful for irrigation and may be used through implementations of irrigation informatics.

References

{{Informatics

Informatics Informatics is the study of computational systems, especially those for data storage and retrieval. According to ACM ''Europe and'' ''Informatics Europe'', informatics is synonymous with computer science and computing as a profession, in which ...

Land management Water management Computational science

Background

Current research

Current implementations

See also

References