Water Management using Smart Radiation Sensors

18 Jul 2022, 09:30 → 19 Jul 2022, 17:40 Europe/London

Patrick Stowell (University of Durham)

A number of techniques have been developed in the past ten years that rely on using naturally occurring radiation for remote sensing. Field deployable neutron sensors have already been shown to be powerful tools for monitoring soil health within agriculture, mapping drainage conditions across large areas, and building maps of evolving hydrological conditions on a continental scale. 

This international workshop aims to provide an overview of the current applications of nuclear sensing techniques to the challenge of water management. The remote workshop will consist of seminar sessions and a software tutorial session. We invite abstracts for both overview talks on radiation remote sensing and more detailed in-depth contributions on specific topics related to water management. 

Note that due to demand the workshop will now be held entirely online. Please see the joining instructions for how to attend remotely. All presentations will be recorded and made available to the registered participants for offline viewing for one week after the workshop. 

SoftwareTutorial_SmartWater.pdf

WorkshopAgenda_SmartWater.pdf

Monday, 18 July

13:20 → 13:30 Welcome: Introduction

Convener: Patrick Stowell (University of Durham)

13:30 → 14:00 Day 1 : Introduction to Radiation Sensing

This session will give an overview on the application of radiation sensing to water management, in particular the use of cosmic ray neutron sensing.

13:30 BST - Workshop Introduction, P. Stowell
13:40 BST - Factors affecting cosmic ray sensing, R. Rosolem

Convener: Patrick Stowell (University of Durham)

SoftwareTutorial_SmartWater.pdf

WorkshopAgenda_SmartWater.pdf

WorkshopIntroductionSlides.pdf

14:00 → 15:00 Day 1 : Cosmic Ray Sensor Networks

This session will provide an overview of recent applications of neutron instrumentation to monitor soil moisture over national scales, and the potential application to irrigation monitoring.

14:00 BST - COSMOS-UK and other Cosmic-Ray Neutron Sensor Applications, J. Evans
14:20 BST - COSMOS-Global, R. Rosolem
14:40 BST - Use of CRNS for scheduling drip irrigation, M. Köhli

Convener: Patrick Stowell (University of Durham)

15:00 → 15:10 Coffee Break

15:10 → 16:00 Day 1 : Radiation Sensors

This session will provide an overview of recent development of new types of cosmic ray neutron sensors.

15:10 BST - A novel and compact CRNS sensor, L. Stevanato
15:30 BST - StyxNeutronica Neutron Sensors, M. Köhli
15:50 BST - BN:ZnS Neutron Sensors, P. Stowell

16:00 → 17:00 Day 1 : Understanding the Soil

This session will discuss a few example projects looking at land management in both the agriculture and civil engineering sectors.

16:00 BST - Drought Monitoring in Brazil, M. Galdos
16:20 BST - Understanding drainage on railways, A. Nichols
16:40 BST - Nitrogen Application and Upland Rice, A. Heinemann

Convener: Patrick Stowell (University of Durham)

first workshop-18JULY22_Nitrogen.pptx

Tuesday, 19 July

10:00 → 11:00 Day 2 : Software Tutorial: URANOS

In this session we will work through a hybrid software tutorial, showing attendees how to use both the URANOS neutron simulation software, and the CRSPY automated neutron processing framework.

Convener: Patrick Stowell (University of Durham)

11:00 → 12:00 Day 2 : Software Tutorial: CRSPY Tutorial

In this session we will work through a hybrid software tutorial, showing attendees how to use both the URANOS neutron simulation software, and the CRSPY automated neutron processing framework.

Convener: Patrick Stowell (University of Durham)

12:00 → 12:30 Day 2 : Software Tutorial: CORNY Neutron Processing Tool Useage

In this session we will work through a hybrid software tutorial, showing attendees how to use both the URANOS neutron simulation software, and the CRSPY automated neutron processing framework.

12:30 → 14:00 Lunch

14:00 → 15:00 Day 2 : IoT Sensors

This session will include talks on existing IoT sensor networks using other point probe techniques to continuously monitor soil moisture.

SWAMP Pilot Project Results, C. Kamienski
DalesLandNet SigFox Soil Moisture Probes, N. Hall
SWAMP Soil Moisture Probes, A. Netto

Convener: Patrick Stowell (University of Durham)

Dales Land Net Technology Overview - 20220718.pdf

15:00 → 15:10 Coffee Break

15:10 → 16:00 Day 2 : COSMIC-SWAMP

This session we will show progress on COSMIC-SWAMP in an informal session to discuss how the development of IoT processing standards neutron sensors could help with the effective integration of these systems into larger scale monitoring networks.

Convener: Patrick Stowell (University of Durham)

16:00 → 16:30 Discussion and Workshop Close

Convener: Patrick Stowell (University of Durham)