With the country’s changing water needs and landscape, concerns are growing about the adequate supply of fresh water available to many areas of the nation. Agriculture is one of the largest users of water resources, specifically for crop irrigation.
Rosa Raudales, assistant professor in the Department of Plant Science and Landscape Architecture, has received a $200,000 three-year grant from USDA to develop science-based guidelines to monitor water quality for irrigation. The project is funded through the USDA AFRI Critical Agricultural Research and Extension program, designed to bring quick solutions to farmers and growers.
The study is an offshoot of the collaboration between the College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources and UConn’s School of Engineering created to develop a Smart Resource Microgrid (SRM). The SRM will involve construction of a test-bed that connects a greenhouse, a water treatment system platform and a gasifier to a water reclamation facility (WRF).
