The Water Resources Research Center (WRRC) is host to many projects funded by the Technology and Research Initiative Fund (TRIF) of the Water Sustainability Program (WSP) at the University of Arizona. These projects address water education, water policy and planning, and water conservation in the state. All projects have educational and outreach components that provide specific products and services for the target audiences that include school children, the general public, water professionals, and agricultural and landscape industries. This project was awarded $126,020 from TRIF to increase awarness of turf and landscape water conservation practices.
Water scariticies have developed in many northern Arizona cities and towns as the result of population growth and expanded tourism. One issue of critical concern in the region is the growing volume of water consumed in turf and landscape irrigation as the number of residences, businesses, parks and golf resorts increase. This concern has fueled a growing demand for sound, science-based information on turf and landscape irrigation from county and city governments, water suppliers, landscape managers and concerned citizens. This site provides instructions on design, installation, and management of irrigation systems; irrigation scheduling; evapotranspiration; and turf/landscape consumptive use values.
To facilitate the science-based irrigation scheduling, the project installed automated weather stations in Flagstaff, Prescott and Payson during the summer of 2003. These stations are integrated into the AZMET, which presently operates 22 weather stations in the low desert of Arizona. The stations were installed with the express purpose of providing information on evapotranspiration (ET) for each of the aforementioned communities. A Turf and Landscape Irrigation Report is produced each day using the ET data generated by the weather station. This report is placed on the Northern Arizona Landscape Irrigation Web Site and the AZMET Web Site for use by the general public.
