Design and Experimental Validation of a Low-Power IoT-Based Smart Irrigation System Using LoRa, ET0, and Crop Water Stress Index for Precision Agriculture
TL;DR
A low-power Internet of Things (IoT)-based irrigation system that integrates environmental, soil, and crop-level information within a low-power IoT framework for adaptive irrigation management is presented.
Abstract
Efficient irrigation management requires complementary information on atmospheric demand, soil conditions, and crop water stress. This study presents a low-power Internet of Things (IoT)-based irrigation system that integrates these components within a unified monitoring and control framework. The system combines LoRa communication, ESP32-based sensor nodes, soil and meteorological sensing, FAO-56 reference evapotranspiration (ET0), and canopy-temperature-based Crop Water Stress Index (CWSI). Irrigation decisions rely on the complementary use of ET0, in situ soil measurements, and CWSI rather than on a single indicator. A hybrid time-, event-, and query-driven acquisition strategy was implemented to adapt node activity and limit communication overhead. The system was deployed under outdoor conditions in Oujda, Morocco, demonstrating integrated sensing, wireless data transmission, crop-stress monitoring, and automated irrigation control. Energy characterization further showed distinct consumption profiles across sensing, communication, actuation, and low-power operating states, supporting the use of duty cycling to limit active node operation. The results demonstrate the feasibility of integrating environmental, soil, and crop-level information within a low-power IoT framework for adaptive irrigation management.