Evapotranspiration – the process of water being released to the atmosphere from either or a combination of soil and plant evaporation and transpiration therefore over prolonged periods of dry spells causing an imbalance to the soil moisture levels.
Without frequent naturally occurring rain, soil moisture eventually falls into a deficit and the plants ability to maintain moisture within its cells also decreases.
Like all living things plants require water to survive, plants are typically made up of 70-90% water. A drop in the plants moisture level reduces the plants ability to produce fruit, vegetables or even as simple as to look nice in flowers or grass being green.
Bay of Plenty is a renowned agricultural hub for the Avocado and kiwifruit industry where water is essential for establishment of young crops as well as mature crops in the peak of summer.
On any new project no matter the size the most important aspect is water or the availability of water – where it's coming from and is there enough to design an efficient system around.
Water can come from a few different resources as well as from the council provided pipe network all with factors that need mitigating.
Power is also a valuable piece of the irrigation puzzle but sometimes can be very costly in running new lines or upgrading the supply. Diesel generators can be sized and installed to overcome this issue.
This is the process of drilling deep into the ground to find an underground water source or aquifer. Bores start at a 100mm diameter and can be as deep as 350m depending on location and the volume of water sought. Groundwater takes require resource consent A to drill the well and B if the desired take is above 35m³ / day.
SMRS can complete the whole process on your behalf as this process can be quite involved.
We work in with Hydrogeologists to submit the application to Regional Council, this will accompany all other aspects of the consent including,
This includes;
Water under 30°C is classed as cold water. Anything 30°C and above is considered warm or geothermal.
Taking of water from a surface body of water – river, stream, lake, water catchment.
Gone are the days where you can just install a pump and system and take water for your orchard or farm. A resource consent is required to take one or both of the following:
The process to gain a consent is similar to that of Groundwater.
5A - Take surface water (including intake structure)
Other considerations when proposing a surface take is adequate intake screen size to prevent native marine creatures being sucked into the pump system, the velocity of the suction screen cannot be that great as to cause marine creatures to be inhaled to the screen.
Discharge filtration can sometimes be more over the top than groundwater supplies as rivers / streams tend to have more solids in suspension, whether it be from sand or vegetable matter.
In the Bay of Plenty rainfall is plentiful over the winter months and an ideal time to capture some of the free resource.
Problem is building a large enough storage tank / pond / lake to store the volume of water to sustain irrigation of the summer months. Volumes required could be millions of litres of water to cover the dry months.
-Tanks can be quite space saving and lined against shelters however the initials costs will be high as well as the pipe network to interlink.
- Excavate and build a pond to store rain in the wet season requires a huge space to develop. May involve reducing the orchard in areas. Compared to water tanks a good cost effective means of water storage.
- The actual area / mechanism for rainwater catchment to divert rainwater into the catchment area, to capture as much rain as possible when it rains. Remembering what goes in and full must also be able to overflow out.
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