| Overall Rating | Gold - expired |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 83.26 |
| Liaison | Megan Litke |
| Submission Date | Feb. 12, 2014 |
| Executive Letter | Download |
American University
OP-T2-48: Weather-Informed Irrigation
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
0.25 / 0.25 |
Sara
Schwartz STARS Research Assistant, Green Office Coordinator Office of Sustainability |
Does the institution use weather data or weather sensors to automatically adjust irrigation practices?:
A brief description of how weather data or sensors are used:
The university has a weather station near the soccer field that sends daily reports to a central irrigation system, Maxicom, including rainfall, evapotranspiration rate (ET), temperature, wind, and other data. The Maxicom system adjusts the amount of water for irrigation based on this data. If there is something suspicious with the irrigation - (ex. excessive water flow in a certain zone) the system alerts a grounds operator who is dispatched to the field to correct the issue (repair/replace flow heads, pipes, etc). The campus is divided into 600 irrigation zones. Data is collected for each zone and the irrigation zones are tailored to this data.
Additionally, rain cans are used to measure rain. Using these rain cans, irrigation can be completely turned off when there is sufficient rain fall. The system also takes plant types in the zones into consideration since plants have different water requirements. Additionally, visual observation by the grounds keeping crew helps identify problems and trigger corrective actions.
The School of International Service is landscaped to entirely eliminate the need for irrigation.
The website URL where information about the practice is available:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.