If you happen to be lucky enough to be in Florida right now then open the window, or better yet take a step outside, and look around. There’s an extremely good chance that, even if you’re in one of the more urban and built-up areas, you can see greenery. More accurately, you can see lush, green vegetation and well-tended, healthy-looking lawns. At certain times of the year, during the heavier rainfall experienced in June, for example, this may seem fairly unremarkable, but a large part of the appeal of Florida as both a place to live and a tourist destination (126.98 million visitors in 2018), is down to the fact that it looks as lush and beautiful throughout the year. The fact that this applies just as much during the hottest and driest part of the year from May to September can be attributed to one thing and one thing only – the increasing use of the kind of innovative smart irrigation systems pioneered by Hoover.
Once the preserve of the agriculture sector, and with a history which dates back as far as ancient Greece and Rome, irrigation systems have always played a part in shifting water supplies from where nature saw fit to place them to where human beings need to have them. The difference with the irrigation systems of today is in the sheer efficiency, flexibility and value which they offer. The reference to taking a look around at the kind of landscaping which smart irrigation makes possible was a way of pointing out the immediate and highly visible impact of smart irrigation. There are other benefits which re either not so visible or not so immediate, but none the less help to underline why smart irrigation systems are not only here to stay but seem set to play a far greater role in the lives of millions of people across the globe in the coming years.
Some Figures For You
According to an Irrigation Automation Market Research report published recently, the global smart irrigation market is worth a massive $2.8 billion in 2020, and is predicted to grow at such a rate that by 2025 it will be worth $6.7 billion. The report itself puts both the sheer size of the market and the levels of growth predicted down to two main factors. The first of these is the increased use of smart irrigation in the agriculture sector, as a means of cutting costs and boosting productivity. The second is the factor which is more prevalent in Florida, and that is the drive for water conservation.
South Florida offers a perfect example of the fact that raw rainfall figures alone are not a sufficient guide to how irrigated a given area will be. The annual rainfall in South Florida, for example, is 53 inches, making it one of the wettest parts of the country. The intensely seasonal nature of this downpour, however, allied to the fact that rainy seasons alternate with periods of intense drought, mean that the water which does fall in the form of rain, combined with other natural resources such as springs and lakes, has to be used as wisely as possible. The South Florida Water Management District set out a Comprehensive Water Conservation Plan, the measures in which managed to reduce the amount of water used per person per day from 180 gallons in the year 2000 to 140 gallons in 2014. They are keen to point out, however, that this is no time for complacency. The number of people choosing Florida as their home is expected to increase by some 6 million people by the year 2025, and each of these people are going to need access to a secure and reliable supply of clean water for drinking, sanitation and the maintenance of the natural habitat. Demand for water in South Florida alone is expected to rise by 22% compared to today’s figures.
More Complex Than Simply Shifting Water Around
Given figures of this kind, it’s clearly no longer enough for the water to be simply shifted from one place to another and then utilized. This was the approach taken by systems such as the flood basins surrounding the Nile River which played a huge role in fuelling the growth of the ancient Greek empire, or the shaduf, dating from 1700 BC, and one of the earliest actual tools developed to play a role in irrigation. Modern irrigation systems, however, such as those designed and installed by Hoover, have a large role to play in the conservation as well as the use of water. Our ethos is to deliver irrigation solutions - from pump stations engineered to meet the very latest environmental and design requirements for water delivery to smart irrigation systems that give full audibility of water usage, allowing 24/7 monitoring of water use as well as historical reporting.
Smart irrigation uses technology to both program the volume of water used - and where it's used. This is a benefit which is as applicable to business and commercial use as it is to domestic customers, and in both cases is one of the key drivers of the return on investment which a smart irrigation system can deliver. The initial investment can be recouped quickly via the controlled and reduced use of water (not to mention the elimination of costly issues such as leaks which go undetected) and the data gathered by a smart system will enable any user to see exactly how much they’ve been able to save.
Short Term Benefits Outweighed By Long Term Impact
The short term benefits of a smart irrigation system are immediate and fairly clear, but the longer-term impact could, if anything, be even more important. The devastating bushfires which swept through New South Wales, Australia in November 2019 were a graphic illustration of the kind of issues which climate change and drought can trigger. This may have been an extreme example, but it underlines the impact which drought can bring about and is the kind of dramatic global event which makes the intelligent use of water resources even more important. By installing a smart irrigation system, people in Florida won’t merely be making the most of their own surroundings through the best use of water – as people have done for millennia – they will be playing a part in making sure that water scarcity in the future is something which can be controlled and alleviated.
How did you survive without it for so long?
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