Workflow Narrative

Precision Irrigation Optimization

Problem It Solves

Where should irrigation depth be increased or reduced to achieve target moisture with less water waste?

Who It Is For

Precision agriculture teams, irrigation planners, and agronomy analytics groups.

Primary User

Large growers, precision ag service providers, and irrigation technology partners.

What It Does

Generates variable-rate irrigation prescription depth from terrain and moisture context.
Estimates moisture stress risk to prioritize intervention zones.
Emits summary diagnostics suitable for irrigation planning dashboards.

How It Works

Estimates local moisture deficit from target_moisture and measured or terrain-inferred moisture.
Adjusts prescription depth by slope-derived terrain factor and max_irrigation_mm limits.
Converts prescribed depth to VRI zones and computes moisture-stress risk index.
Indicative formula: prescribed_mm = max(0, target - moisture) * max_irrigation_mm * terrain_factor.

Why It Wins

Produces direct raster-ready prescription depths and risk diagnostics from reproducible inputs.

Typical Buying Trigger

A grower or consultant needs to shift from uniform irrigation to variable-rate execution.

Typical Presets

fast for quick field-scale recommendations.
balanced for default VRI planning.
conservative for stronger terrain-risk penalties.

Inputs

Parameter	Optional	Description
dem	no	Digital elevation model used as the terrain reference surface.
optional soil_moisture	yes	Optional soil moisture raster used to refine irrigation need and stress scoring.
profile: fast \| balanced \| conservative	no	Processing profile controlling sensitivity, quality strictness, and runtime tradeoffs.
target_moisture	no	Target moisture level used to compute irrigation prescription amounts.
max_irrigation_mm	no	Maximum irrigation depth allowed in generated irrigation recommendations.

Outputs

Parameter	Type	Description
irrigation_prescription	GeoTIFF	Irrigation prescription raster indicating recommended application depth.
moisture_stress_risk	GeoTIFF	Moisture stress risk raster supporting irrigation prioritization.
vri_zones	GeoTIFF	Variable-rate irrigation zone raster.
summary	JSON	Machine-readable summary report containing run metadata, QA diagnostics, and key metrics.
html_report	HTML	Human-readable customer-facing report generated from the summary contract for stakeholder review and QA traceability.

When sweep_spec is supplied, the workflow also emits run_matrix_summary, sensitivity_report, sensitivity_report_html, and stability_map. The sensitivity report includes metrics.primary_metric, metrics.primary_relative_span, and metrics.stability_class (high, medium, low), while stability_map uses classes 3=high, 2=medium, 1=low.

Python Example

import whitebox_workflows as wbw

wbe = wbw.WbEnvironment(include_pro=True, tier="pro")

prescription, stress, zones, summary = wbe.precision_irrigation_optimization(
    dem="data/dem.tif",
    soil_moisture="data/soil_moisture.tif",
    profile="balanced",
    target_moisture=0.6,
    max_irrigation_mm=18.0,
    output_prefix="output/irrigation",
)

print(prescription)
print(stress)
print(zones)
print(summary)

License Notice

Use of this function requires a license for Whitebox Workflows Professional (WbW-Pro). Please visit www.whiteboxgeo.com to purchase a license.

Project Links

WbW Homepage User Manual Learn More