LANDSCAPE WATER AUDIT
So what is and why a landscape water audit. Our water resources are stretched to the limit with anticipated demand to only increase. Through common sense practices as well as water conserving landscape designs, good maintenance and periodic water audits, considerable landscape water needs and waste can be reduced.
A water audit can be as simple as activating an existing irrigation system and observing any obvious problems (broken heads, misaligned sprinklers, broken pipe, damaged control valves, etc.). Many times these corrections alone can save considerable amounts of water.
A more detailed audit through the use of “catch cans”, and a more thorough study of the site, can provide more specific information about a system. By placing actual cans in the field and activating the system, the du, or distribution uniformity can be calculated which will provide specifics on where potential problems are (coverage issues, poor installation, etc.). This information, along with other key information (soil type, local eto, root depth, plant variety) can then be transferred into recommendations for modifications to the controller scheduling or the system itself.
