Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

Vol 27, Oct Suppl. Issue, 2021; Page No.(145-149)

IMPLEMENTING CELLULAR AUTOMATA BASED LEAKAGE DETECTION AND LOCALIZATION METHOD TO CONSERVE WATER

Arpita Bhattacharya and A. Senthil

Abstract

The world’s largest water users are our farmers and their irrigated agricultural land. The water is scarce and considering the increase in population and climate change it has become necessary to find methods to conserve it at a global level. In water policy discussions, drip irrigation features prominently as a potential solution to water shortage issues, based on the assertion that it would increase the quality of water usage. According to the statistics available with reference to its implementation and use in Rajasthan state, the scenario is not very promising. This is due to various factors which prevents the farmers to accept and adopt this practice. Another important issue to be considered here is the leakage detection and localization which is also a potential cause for water wastage and also if acquired separately for drip irrigation will incur additional cost to the farmers who are neither very rich nor very technically sound. In this paper, we propose cellular automata based leakage detection and localization method which is cost effective and is integrate in the drip irrigation system making it smart and comprehensive thus achieving its main goal of conserving water in the agricultural field. We also present a comparative study of the implementation cost of our proposed method with four other popular model based leakage detection and localization method so that the farmers of Rajasthan and other Indian states can become aware and realize the importance of preserving water which is depleting day by day.