Highway Landscape Maintenance Water Conservation

摘要

The Crop Water Stress Index (CWSI) uses leaf temperature and air vapor pressure deficit data to calculate a relative amount of water stress. The CWSI has been successfully applied to agronomic plants but has not been applied to landscape plants. The Arizona Department of Transportation funded a research project to determine if the CWSI can be used to efficiently irrigate freeway landscape plants. Two factors were essential for the successful application of the CWSI. First, plants had to have a sufficiently dense canopy so that only foliage is viewed by the IRT. Second, well watered plants needed to transpire at a maximum rate during midday. The use of the CWSI to irrigate freeway landscape plants appears to be limited based on the low proportion of plants which were suited to the CWSI.