Transcript Slide 1

Rio Grande Basin Initiatives
Task 2 Texas
Accomplishments 2005-2006
Guy Fipps, PhD, Principal Investigator
Chris Braden, PhD, Project Coordinator
Texas Cooperative Extension
Irrigation Technology Center
http://itc.tamu.edu/
Irrigation Technology Center
to Texas A&M – San Antonio campus
 Legislature must approve $80 million in
tuition revenue bonds in a special session
 Tied
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Special session to convene April 17, 2006
 The
city must purchase the land for the
proposed site
New Landscape Irrigation
Short Course
 Global
Positioning Systems (GPS) for
Landscape Irrigation
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Course Overview
• Covers general use of GPS and how GPS can be
applied to landscape irrigation systems
• Students will gain knowledge in general GPS use
and site mapping
• 8 hour course offered in a computer classroom
setting with outdoor experience
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Course offering Summer 2006 in College
Station, TX
Short Courses Offered
 Landscape
Irrigation Auditing and
Management Course (16 hour course)
 El Paso, TX- November 3-4, 2005
• 19 students
• 13 new certified landscape auditors
Short Courses Offered
 Electrical
Wiring and Safety for Landscape
Irrigation Course (8 hour course)
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Weslaco, TX- August 25, 2005
• 4 students
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El Paso, TX- offered course, no student
enrollment
Texas ET Website
http://texaset.tamu.edu/

Recalculated average ETo (PET) and rainfall
rates for 21 cities in Texas
http://texaset.tamu.edu/pet.php
http://texaset.tamu.edu/rainfall.php
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Website uses
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Irrigation scheduling by irrigators
Water budgeting and planning by state agencies
City water conservation departments
Texas ET Website
http://texaset.tamu.edu/
 Customized
Texas ET Website to allow users
to enter their profile and receive customized
irrigation watering recommendations
via email
 User can set up profiles for
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Landscape sites
Agriculture sites
http://texaset.tamu.edu/date.php?stn=sagc2&s
pread=14
Rainout Shelter
and build a retractable 5,000 ft2
shelter as a barrier to rain to maintain a
continual 60-day drought recovery for turf
cultivars on two soil profiles
 Purpose is to have sound scientific
research supporting new San Antonio
ordinances
 Design
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Plant grasses to survive a 60-day drought
Requires at least 4 in of soil where they plant
grasses at residential or commercial sites
This is the research site for the rainout shelter
with 2 parallel concrete beams to support the
future roof structure.
Illustration of rainout
shelter tracking
system:
I-beam
Welding tabs
Angle iron
Caster wheels
C-channel
For more information on the ITC Rainout Shelter, see my poster.
Evapotranspiration (ET) Smart
Controllers
 ET
Controllers installed into residential
sites to compare how effectively they
operate and set up irrigation schedules
 Action
plan, participation screening,
surveys, and evaluation forms have been
created
Turf Irrigation and Nutrient
Management Reference Manual
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Reference manual B-6165 published December
2005 by Texas Cooperative Extension
 Irrigation Water Management (Dr. Fipps, author)
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Predicting turf water requirements
Accounting for rainfall
Determining irrigation frequency
Determining station runtimes
Determining precipitation rate
Thank You