A portable and low-cost tool to measure and monitor soil evaporation
Researchers at the Catholic University have developed and patented a portable and low-cost tool to quantify and monitor soil evaporation, a pressing issue caused by climate change that requires an additional supply of water to irrigate fields and is a fundamental factor contributing to the risk of drought. For example, in vineyards, from the 80s to today, the evaporation rate has increased by at least 20%.
The Evaporimeter, developed and patented by Professor Stefano Poni of the Faculty of Agricultural, Food, and Environmental Sciences at the Catholic University, Piacenza campus, along with Dr. Eugenio Magnanini (external collaborator) and Caterina Capri (Ph.D.), is called EPIC and can be applied in different sectors: from hydrology to soil studies, agroforestry research, nursery techniques, water balances, and irrigation, to the genetic improvement of herbaceous species.
The Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy, precisely the Directorate-General for the Protection of Industrial Property—Italian Patents and Trademarks Office, has granted a patent for the invention. EPIC is a closed-type transparent ventilated chamber with a volume of 28 liters, a height of 56 cm, and a ground support surface of 491 cm2 that, once fixed to the ground, allows to determine the evapotranspiration rate of the underlying surface every 120 seconds.
"The rapidity of the tool allows to collect an adequate number of measurements," explains Professor Poni. "Data are stored on a local memory card."
"It could provide an important contribution for the determination of water loss rates from various surfaces: that is a priority element in the agro-forestry and ecological fields, especially when it is necessary to have an estimate of the water balance of specific ecosystems," Professor Poni emphasizes.
The tool has no commercial equivalents: "existing ones, in fact, are limited to small chambers to be interfaced with other units and are very expensive." Exploiting sensor technology based on the "Internet of Things (IoT)," the cost of the instrument is negligible and not exceeding 200 euros.
Inspired by IoT technology with Arduino micro-controller, the tool is able to measure, at 120-second intervals, the evaporation/transpiration rate of portions of soil or other surfaces.
The low cost of the patented instrument is one of its strengths, along with portability and manageability, the speed and accuracy of measurements. Today, evaporation is usually measured with balances or very expensive instruments called porometers or gas exchange systems.
"In an era of global warming—the professor explains—the 'soil evaporation' must be limited and optimized. In other words, it is necessary to know how much water is dispersed by one square meter of soil (uncultivated land, grass-covered, cemented, covered with organic materials, etc)."
"In agriculture, but also in gardening (including amateur gardening), there is always the doubt of how much water to provide to the plants, especially in the summer months. This device allows a very precise quantification of this amount in order to keep the plants in good condition and avoid substantial water waste," he concludes.
Provided by Catholic University of the Sacred Heart