REU Florida trip to ENP and Extension Service

Yesterday the 2010 NSF REU group visited Homestead. Here are a couple of pics from the event. The students participated in an extension BMP training and visited the Everglades National Park.

REU presentations

Please congratulate Kevin and Liliana on a great job during the mid-project presentations! They did a really good job!

C-111 project

The C-111 projected was officially kicked off on June 24 2010 and work has already started. We are all excited about this project. The project involves assessing the impact of raising stage in canal C-111 on soil water dynamics and changes in groundwater table elevation in farmlands adjacent to the eastern boundary of the Everglades National Park commonly known as the Redlands. On the side is a picture showing depth to the bedrock from our field trip yesterday (July-07-2010).

The picture below shows collection of an undisturbed soil sample at site A1K. Soil samples collected from this site will be used in the laboratory determination of soil water characteristic curve for Krome soil.

Below is a collection of an undisturbed soil sample from A1K on July 07 2010.

Soil samples covered with cheese cloth ready for transportation to the laboratory.

REU travel

This is a reminder that I will be out with the REU students starting after lunch on July 8th and returning late July 9th. See everyone on Monday the 12th!

Nicholas's 1st dissertation manuscript published

Group! Please congratulate Nicholas for having his manuscript accepted for publication in the Vadose Zone Journal. A great accomplishment! Congratulation Nicholas!

July begins with two new research properties!

Last week, two additional homeowner properties, participating in Miami-Dade Extension’s Water-Use Efficiency Program, elected to take part in the pair-wise study.

The day began with a rain-accompanied top-to-bottom irrigation system retrofit. Keeping only the existing backflow device, we installed the soil water sensor system, electric valves and two water meters. These total retrofits serve not only as an incentive for the homeowner to participate in the study, but also afford me a level of certainty that all zones are running during an irrigation event – something the mechanical indexing valve cannot guarantee.

The day concluded at a property with a pre-existing digital timer and electric zone valve irrigation system. We connected the soil water sensor add-on device to the timer and installed a water meter on each experimental zone.



These properties are now two more stops during my reading days – when I collect data in the field to verify soil water sensors’ water savings potential in urban landscape irrigation.

"Smart" irrigation in Spanish!

This week I produced a video for the Urban Conservation Unit team at Miami-Dade Extension.

This video discusses on-site "smart" irrigation controllers. This kind of irrigation timer uses detailed irrigation zone information as well as information gathered from its own weather sensor to estimate evapotranspiration and replenish the landscape as needed.

The video features UCU team member Jesus Lomeli and is in Spanish for the Spanish-speaking, irrigation-loving legions here and beyond.

Check it out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cW0TYaplnpk

The older English version, featuring UCU team leader Mary McCready can be found here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GGkin0_oyQ