Smart Irrigation
with UAV Soil
Moisture Mapping
Integrating UAV-based L-band radiometry with water balance models and variable-rate irrigation systems to revolutionise precision agriculture in Australia.
UAV in Action at Newry Farm
Weekly UAV flights across the Newry irrigation site — capturing high-resolution soil moisture maps over grass, corn, and barely growing seasons.
Why Smart Irrigation?
Agriculture is Australia's largest water user. Even a 10% saving would equal one-third of all urban consumption.
The Water Challenge
Traditional irrigation applies water uniformly — ignoring the natural spatial variability of soil moisture. This leads to over- and under-irrigation, wasting water and reducing crop yield.
UAV Radiometry
Our UAV-mounted Polarimetric L-band Single-beam Radiometer (PLSR) maps top-5cm soil moisture at 10 m resolution across entire fields — a world-first capability.
Precision Delivery
Soil moisture maps are fed into SWAN Systems' irrigation scheduling platform to generate optimal variable-rate watering prescriptions updated in near-real-time.
Four Years, Three Milestones
A staged program from algorithm development through to real-world water savings demonstration.
Develop a high-accuracy soil moisture mapping algorithm for UAV-based L-band radiometry. Validate against intensive ground sampling at the Newry site under diverse wetting/drying cycles.
Integrate UAV surface soil moisture maps with SWAN Systems' water balance model to predict root-zone moisture to 60 cm depth. Test under bare, grass, barely and corn.
Close the loop: drive the centre-pivot variable-rate irrigation heads with model-derived prescription maps. Demonstrate measurable water savings and improved crop productivity.
Newry, Victoria
A 400 m diameter centre-pivot irrigation site in the Gippsland region — monitored as a precision agricultural core site by Agriculture Victoria since 2016.
The UAV Platform
A custom-built UAV carries a passive microwave radiometer to map soil moisture across entire fields at high spatial resolution.
Microwave Radiometer
The UAV is equipped with a passive L-band microwave radiometer that measures the natural thermal emission from the soil, allowing accurate retrieval of near-surface soil moisture across the entire field.
UAV Flights
Weekly drone surveys were carried out over the Newry study site during the irrigation season, producing high-resolution soil moisture maps that capture the spatial variability of water content across the paddock.
Thermal Imaging
A thermal infrared camera is co-mounted on the UAV alongside the radiometer, providing simultaneous land surface temperature observations to support soil moisture retrieval and model validation.
Collaborative Network
Lead institution — Civil Engineering
Ground sampling operations
UAV L-band radiometer design
Variable-rate irrigation delivery
Funded by the Australian Research Council — Infrastructure Grant LE190100045 & Linkage Project LP210301314