Growers today manage vast amounts of data to keep their operations running smoothly. But when data is presented in complex graphs, figuring out what it means can feel overwhelming.
Take soil moisture data as an example—the information is valuable for optimizing irrigation, yet traditional graphs often make it challenging to draw actionable insights. When you have crucial data to optimize your agricultural resources, it must be presented in an informative, easy-to-understand manner.
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Semios’ all-in-one crop management platform has one such tool that simplifies soil moisture monitoring for you—the Infiltration Map. This innovative tool makes interpreting soil moisture readings much easier. Before delving into the benefits of this tool, it is worth exploring how soil moisture data is traditionally presented.
How is Soil Moisture Data Presented Traditionally
The graph below shows the traditional approach to soil moisture graph. The trend lines portray the change in soil moisture over time. Even though we got used to this view, it often requires time and effort to think through the implications of the changes it shows.
It becomes even more difficult if you want to know about water levels at multiple depths and the way the water moves through those depths. This is where the infiltration map simplifies irrigation activity monitoring for you.
Introducing Semios Infiltration Map
The infiltration Map from the Semios crop management platform is an innovative tool in soil moisture visualization, helping you make informed irrigation decisions. This intuitive tool offers a clear, graphical representation of soil moisture, using color-coded zones to indicate saturation, deficits, and everything in between.
What sets it apart?
- Visual clarity: The map shows exactly how water moves through the soil after each irrigation event, helping you identify water infiltration issues in your soil
- Actionable insights at a glance: You can quickly identify where roots are actively using water.
- User-friendly design: Instead of overwhelming you with lines and data points, it uses color-coded visuals to give you the soil moisture data.
The infiltration map's most fascinating feature is its ability to visualize soil moisture as if we were looking at a cross-section of the soil. The map uses the same data as the traditional soil moisture graph, but it arranges and presents this data as a soil moisture cross-section over time, with each depth represented by a distinct colour.
Let’s dive into its advantages through some examples.
How Infiltration Map Simplifies Your Irrigation Planning
The traditional graph shows upward trends in soil moisture. At the same time, on the infiltration map, the colour changes to green and blue depending on the moisture level. If you look at the map above, about a third of the way through, there's an irrigation event. The infiltration map makes it immediately clear that the event was short, whereas the traditional graph requires cross-referencing to understand this.
On the infiltration map, it is easy to see that this irrigation only penetrated the soil down to 10 inches. Now, contrast this with later irrigation that penetrated all the way down to 30 inches. These are both appropriate irrigations. However, throughout the season, you may find that you irrigate at different depths according to where water is depleted, which also indicates the area where roots are present and active.
Let’s take a look at a couple more year-long examples:
From this graph, it is easy to understand the water level over the months. It shows that irrigations/rain in February, March, and May were excessive. It likely contributed to the leaching and waste of water and nutrients. However, irrigations later in the season were more appropriate for depth and need.
In the example above, irrigations were managed quite well, with only brief periods of deficit through the hottest part of the summer. However, in September, things fell apart a bit. It is likely that post-harvest irrigation was never applied. So, the soil became very deficient in water through late fall, when the trees needed to be storing up carbohydrates for the Spring.
The last example shows a situation that has little to improve upon. Irrigations were very effective down to about two feet, which is right where the bulk of the roots reside. Stressed periods were deep in the soil and short-lived. This is an excellent example of what good irrigation looks like.
Wrapping Up
Data can be complex, but how we present it can make a significant difference. The infiltration map from Semios is a great example of this. Having an intuitive tool that simplifies your irrigation decisions means one less thing to worry about.
By transforming traditional graphs into intuitive, color-coded visuals, this tool empowers you to:
- Monitor soil moisture at various depths effortlessly.
- Optimize irrigation schedules with confidence.
- Save time, cut costs, reduce waste, and enhance resource management.
With tools like the Infiltration Map, Semios is redefining how agricultural data is presented, making it more user-friendly and actionable. The innovation behind the infiltration map is just the beginning of many new approaches to data visualization that will simplify our lives and improve our agricultural practices.
If you’d like to explore how we can help streamline your irrigation management, check out the solutions for water management from Semios.
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