Metering agricultural use Hi ...

Metering agricultural use

Hi Ruby - the answer to your question depends on the area, number of farms, type of agriculture (arable, non-arable) as well as your relationship with the farmers i.e. is there trust and sense of working together to address the drought problem. 

If you have not too many farms and they use consistent and predictable amounts of water then you could estimate use based on historical records. For example cattle will typically consume 40 gallons per day if there is no other water or grass available. The cheapest way to meter would be to discuss use with farmers and build up a demand pattern. You could sense check this with your historical supply records. Irrigation again could be estimated from flows and times used. 

If the farming area is fed from specific mains you could use a clamp on electromagnetic meter to check flows into an area and you need not do this all the time. If you had a few pits or chambers you could move a portable device around. 

If you have many farms with mixed use then a combination of estimating and measurement would allow you to build up a coarse model of the network with demands at different snapshot times. This need not be sophisticated and a spreadsheet would do the job. 

You could similarly have a clamp on e-m meter for major farm feeds that you could use to check flows and these need not be in permanent or constant use so one device could serve many farms.

 I hope this is of help?