Method of controlling soil moisture, water accumulation and fertilizer distribution in land

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10537074-B2
Application number	US-201816021685-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 28, 2018
Priority date	Mar 11, 2016
Publication date	Jan 21, 2020
Grant date	Jan 21, 2020

Abstract

Described herein is a method of controlling soil moisture, water accumulation and fertilizer distribution in land. Elevation location data for land areas are extracted from two or more pixels of a topographic image including topographic data. Each pixel represents a land area. Wetness indices for the land areas are determined from the elevation and location data, based on the slope between two or more defined areas of land and an upslope contributing area per unit contour length. At risk defined areas of land, e.g., those at risk of accumulating water are identified based on wetness indices. Water is transported from the at risk defined areas of land to another location. The transporting of water reduces the risk of accumulating water in the at risk defined areas of land and improves crop growth potential in those areas.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method for controlling soil moisture and water accumulation in land, comprising:
employing elevation and location data from pixels of a topographic image to determine wetness indices for defined areas of land based on a slope between two or more defined areas of land and an upslope contributing area per unit contour length for the defined areas of land;
based on the wetness indices, identifying at risk defined areas of land that are at risk of accumulating water; and
removing water from the at risk defined areas of land to reduce the risk of accumulating water in the at risk defined areas of land and enhance crop growth potential.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising obtaining the topographic image that includes topographic data from a database that stores topographic images.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the wetness indices (W i ) are determined by the formula:
ln(α/tan(β))

wherein α is the upslope contributing area per unit contour length and β is the slope between two or more defined areas of land.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein removing water includes transporting water in a network of passages configured to remove water that extends from the at risk defined areas of land to another location.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining an amount of fertilizer in the water in the at risk defined areas of land.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein determining the amount of fertilizer includes determining the amount of fertilizer based on solubility characteristics of the fertilizer in the water and/or an amount of nitrogen present in the at risk defined areas of land.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein removing water includes controlling an amount of water removed from the at risk defined areas of land dependent on water absorption characteristics of soil and a rate of evaporation of water from a surface of the at risk defined areas of land.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein removing water includes transporting water in a network of pipes that extends from the at risk defined areas of land to areas of land that are determined, based on the determined wetness indices, to be at a low risk of accumulating water.

9. A system for controlling soil moisture and water accumulation in land, comprising:
a processing system having one or more processors and memory coupled to the one or more processors, the processing system configured to:
analyze topographic data to determine elevations and locations of defined areas of the land;
compute wetness indices for the defined areas of the land; and
determine and alleviate risk based on the determined wetness indices by identifying at risk defined areas of land that are at risk of accumulating water and controlling removal of water from the at risk defined areas of land; and

a water transport mechanism configured to transport water from the at risk defined areas of land.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the processing system analyzes pixels of images in the topographic data to determine the elevations and locations of the defined areas of the land, wherein each pixel corresponds to a defined area of the land.

11. The system of claim 9 , wherein wetness index is employed to determine a slope between two or more defined areas of land, and an upslope contributing area per unit contour length of the defined areas of land, the wetness indices of the defined areas of the land being based on determined values for the slope and the upslope contributing area.

12. The system of claim 9 , wherein the water transport mechanism includes an underground network of pipes that extends from the at risk defined areas of land to another location.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the underground network of pipes includes valves to selectively permit flow of water.

14. The system of claim 9 , wherein the processing system further comprises a fertilizer distribution analyzer that determines an amount of fertilizer dissolved in the water in at risk defined areas of land.

15. The system of claim 9 , wherein the processing system further comprises a fertilizer distribution analyzer that controls redistribution of fertilizer-containing water from the at risk defined areas of land to areas of land that are determined, based on the determined wetness indices, to be at a low risk of accumulating water using the water transport mechanism.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein the processing system controls the redistribution of fertilizer-containing water using pipes provided with valves which are opened to remove water and closed to retain water in the at risk defined areas of land.

17. The system of claim 9 , further comprising sensors in operative communication with the processing system to measure one or more of moisture in the land and nitrogen content of the land.

18. A computer program product for controlling soil moisture and water accumulation in land, the computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions being executable by a computer to cause the computer to perform a method comprising:
employing elevation and location data from pixels of a topographic image to determine wetness indices for defined areas of land based on a slope between two or more defined areas of land and an upslope contributing area per unit contour length for the defined areas of land;
based on the wetness indices, identifying at risk defined areas of land that are at risk of accumulating water; and
controlling transport of water from the at risk defined areas of land to reduce the risk of accumulating water in the at risk defined areas of land and enhance crop growth potential.

19. The computer program product of claim 18 , wherein the program instructions executable by a computer cause the computer to determine an amount of fertilizer dissolved in water in at risk defined areas of land.

20. The computer program product of claim 18 , wherein the program instructions executable by a computer cause the computer to:
control removal of water using an underground network of pipes that extends from the at risk defined areas of land to areas of land that are determined, based on the determined wetness indices, to be at a low risk of accumulating water.

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Chitnis Upendra D
• Klein Levente
• Marianno Fernando J

Classifications

• G06F16/29

  Geographical information databases · CPC title

• E02B11/005

  Drainage conduits · CPC title

• G05B2219/2625

  Sprinkler, irrigation, watering · CPC title

• G05B19/042

  using digital processors (G05B19/05 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G06Q10/0635

  Risk analysis of enterprise or organisation activities · CPC title