VOLUMETRIC BUDGET BASED IRRIGATION CONTROL
The present embodiments provide systems, processes and/or methods of controlling irrigation. In some embodiments, methods are provided that receive ( 4112 ) water usage information corresponding to a first volumetric water usage at a site location having an irrigation controller ( 130 ), wherein the first volumetric water usage corresponds to volumetric water usage from a beginning of a budget period of time to a first time within the budget period of time; determine ( 4114 ) automatically whether a volumetric water budget at the site location will be met for the budget period of time based on at least the first volumetric water usage, the volumetric water budget corresponding to a specified volume of water for use during the budget period of time; determine ( 4116 ) automatically, in the event the volumetric water budget will not be met, an adjustment to the irrigation by the irrigation controller; and output ( 4118 ) signaling to effect the adjustment.
1 . A method of controlling irrigation comprising:
receiving water usage information as part of a first volumetric water usage at a site location having an irrigation controller, wherein the first volumetric water usage corresponds to volumetric water usage from a beginning of a budget period of time to a first time within the budget period of time;
determining automatically whether a volumetric water budget at the site location is predicted to be met for the budget period of time based on at least the first volumetric water usage, wherein the volumetric water budget comprises to a specified volume of water for use at the site location during the budget period of time;
determining, in response to the determination that the volumetric water budget is predicted to be exceeded, whether there is a specified restriction that prevents an authorization of further irrigation that is predicted to exceed the volumetric water budget;
determining automatically, in response to the determination that the volumetric water budget is predicted to be exceeded and the determination that the specified restriction that prevents the authorization of further irrigation that is predicted to exceed the volumetric water budget, adjustments to the irrigation by the irrigation controller, wherein the adjustments comprises reductions of runtimes of predicted remaining irrigation events predicted to be implemented during the budget period of time to compensate for an amount of water usage predicted to exceed the volumetric water budget over the predicted remaining irrigation events; and
outputting first signaling to effect the adjustment.