Acquisition and Management of Continuous Data Streams for Crop Water Management.

Wireless sensor network systems for decision support in crop water management offer many advantages including larger spatial coverage and multiple types of data input.  However, collection and management of multiple and continuous data streams for near real-time post analysis can be problematic. This presentation will discuss key practices that we implemented to expedite management of large amounts of quality data-- to include an adequate sampling rate, data averaging, a standardized output format for data capture, centralized data collection, structured files for data storage, and automated daily file organization and execution of algorithms for data processing. Although imperfect, algorithms can be used to compare and validate data from different sources, and address quality assurance and quality control issues.  These key practices facilitate near real-time decision support for site-specific crop water management.