Hydro-Tech, an integrated decision support system for sustainable irrigation management: (II) software and hardware architecture

In the framework of the HydroTech project (supported by Apulia region and the ECERDF programme), local private ICT companies in collaboration with research institutions are developing and testing at farm scale an integrated Decision Support System (DSS) for irrigation management, through the integration of advanced software and hardware technologies. Hydrotech-DSS provides standard interfaces, which connect on-field devices with client software application through a Data Cloud Network (Hydrotech Data Cloud, HDC). The HDC is composed of: 1) Knowledge Data Base, a DB for large amount of data coming from heterogeneous but strongly correlated sources; 2) a 'gateway' based on web services technology, to connect external (onfield) devices together with an open standard communication protocol; 3) a set of software components constituting the APP Data Chain from source to destination passing by elaboration steps(Data Assimilation, Model Engine, Decision Maker). The Decision Maker module supports two types of decision system: the MSS (Management Support System) enables the end-user to manage the work flow of his farm, whereas the DSS (Decision Support System) supports him during irrigation/fertigation management activities (e.g. timing and amount of irrigation according to weather forecast, crop water stress, irrigation system constraints, etc.). The system allows fast and simply information transfer directly to the field through an easy interface accessible with new smart devices (tablet, smartphone, etc.). The user interface allows: 1) to receive aid for the decision (irrigation and fert-irrigation advice) directly on the field within its validity time window by means of "push-pull" technology; 2) to interact with the HDC to send the feedback (e.g. treatment registration), characterize the individual farm and adjust the system parameters; 3) to use different type of software client application, such as classic client-server for professional use on rugged tablet and computers, or smart/user friendly for mobile device and web based; 4) to work off-line and to synchronize the database when data connection will be available; 5) to enable users for the automation and remote control of irrigation system equipment (e.g. hydrants, electric valves). With respect to the design and development of the hardware infrastructure, the 'field unit' is composed by sensor devices (EAP, end-acquisitionpoint), actuator devices and the so-called 'coordinator' which is aware of the whole configuration and logics to be respected. Each sensor/actuator must be placed in the most favourable site, and each EAP is equipped with Li-Ion rechargeable battery and a solar panel in order to have the highest installation facility. Acquired data can be transferred to the 'coordinator' by means of different technologies (LAN, 3G, GPRS, ZigBee, WiFI, Bluetooth, etc.). The coordinator is a gateway provided with moderate computation and storage capabilities able to collect data from the EAP, perform basic checks and transmit them to the centralized cloud system, which is able to perform the main computations. Many different technologies can be adopted to transfer data to the cloud system. Once the irrigation decisions have been computed and approved, commands are sent to the 'coordinator' which is responsible to forward these commands to actuators adopting specific field strategies.