Farming in the Climate Change Era

The Quechan Reservation lies at the heart of the Imperial Valley, a desert region with minimal precipitation. Agriculture, heavily reliant on manually operated irrigation systems from the Colorado River, forms the economic backbone. Currently, there's variability and error in water application due to manual operation. While the Bureau of Reclamation is demanding flow data, the tribe lacks this crucial information. Commercial solutions are costly, so our goal is to develop an affordable, state-of-the-art irrigation system to manage water resources effectively on tribal lands.

I'm seeking a student team to create an integrated irrigation management system for the Quechan Indian Tribe in Southern California's productive Imperial Valley. This multifaceted project combines microcontrollers, sensors, telecommunications, agriculture, hydraulics, and social justice. 

WHY CHOOSE THIS PROJECT? We're using field-deployable sensors to address real-world challenges related to farming, climate change, and social justice. 

  1. Water is a precious resource, and the Quechan Tribe depends on agriculture for most of its income. Climate change threatens their livelihood, making our irrigation system crucial. Moreover, our work impacts the Colorado River watershed, which sustains a significant portion of the U.S. economy. 
  2. This project is ongoing therefore there are solutions that exist to give a head start (https://github.com/IsaacGuzman2/Capstone_Enclosure_And_PCB). Most existing solutions from the previous team are modifiable therefore you are not limited to these design choices. 
  3. Lastly, this project offers valuable experience in a vital environmental and agricultural system.

Objectives


The goals of this capstone project are to:  

  1. Design a sensor array that can measure and record values to then calculate instantaneous flow measurements (water depth, velocity, etc) 
  2. Allow irrigation/water managers to remotely track the recorded data from the system (ex. How much water has flowed through the irrigation gate) 
  3. Utilize existing solutions from past teams to finalize/innovate system’s design for field testing in the winter/spring 
  4. Develop fail safe systems for possible events (system gets misaligned, knocked over, overheating)  

The prototype system will be delivered to the tribe for trials in 2024.

Motivations


Climate change is affecting the distribution of rainfall throughout the world, which is disrupting current food production operations. In arid areas, water needed for agricultural production is pumped from aquifers or diverted from reservoirs; however, these water supplies are overdrawn. Within three decades, almost 80% of the lands that depend on groundwater will start to reach their natural irrigation limits as the wells run dry. After years of drought, officials declared a water shortage on the Colorado River, which triggers mandatory restrictions on water usage. These restrictions will decrease crop production, which will in turn increase food costs for the consumer. To combat these changes, managers will need to quantify every drop of irrigatino water. This project will help the Quechan Tribe take the first step in quantifying their water usage.

Qualifications


Minimum Qualifications:

Students must be creative and find unorthodox solutions to problems. There are few canned solutions to engineering design, so students must be willing to fail. The ability to try a good idea, alter it, and try again is necessary to any design project. Trial and error is critical.

Preferred Qualifications:

This project will rely on 1) building sensor arrays, 2) programming microcontrollers, and 3) 4G-5G communication technology. Having skills in these areas will be an asset.


Details


Project Partner:

Gerrad Jones

NDA/IPA:

No Agreement Required

Number Groups:

1

Project Status:

Accepting Applicants

Keywords:
Agricultureclimate changeirrigationTribal water managementenvironmental justice social justicehydraulic sensor systemtelecommunications
Card Image Capstone