CIT Water Conservation and Scheduling 1 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: What does ET stand for in irrigation scheduling?
- Effective Timing
- Evapotranspiration (Correct answer)
- Emitter Technology
- Estimated Throughput
Correct answer: Evapotranspiration
ET stands for evapotranspiration, the combined water loss from soil evaporation and plant transpiration.
Question 2: Which controller type uses local weather data to automatically adjust irrigation run times?
- Mechanical timer
- ET-based (SMART) controller (Correct answer)
- Simple digital timer
- Manual valve controller
Correct answer: ET-based (SMART) controller
ET-based SMART controllers use real-time weather data to calculate evapotranspiration and automatically adjust schedules.
Question 3: What is a 'water budget' in irrigation controller programming?
- The annual cost of water
- A maximum allowable daily run time
- A seasonal percentage adjustment to run times based on ET (Correct answer)
- Total gallons stored in the system
Correct answer: A seasonal percentage adjustment to run times based on ET
A water budget is a percentage adjustment applied to controller run times to match seasonal evapotranspiration needs.
Question 4: What is 'cycle and soak' programming designed to prevent?
- Controller short-circuits
- Runoff on slopes or clay soils with slow infiltration (Correct answer)
- Backflow device fouling
- Emitter clogging
Correct answer: Runoff on slopes or clay soils with slow infiltration
Cycle and soak applies multiple short irrigation cycles with rest periods to prevent runoff where soil infiltration is slow.
Question 5: Which metric measures how uniformly an irrigation system applies water across a zone?
- Static pressure
- Flow rate (GPM)
- Distribution uniformity (DU) (Correct answer)
- Dynamic pressure
Correct answer: Distribution uniformity (DU)
Distribution uniformity (DU) measures how evenly water is applied across an irrigation zone, calculated from catch-can data.
Question 6: What is the purpose of a rain sensor on an irrigation system?
- Measure total annual rainfall
- Automatically suspend irrigation during or after rain (Correct answer)
- Increase flow rate during dry spells
- Trigger backflow preventer testing
Correct answer: Automatically suspend irrigation during or after rain
A rain sensor automatically overrides and suspends scheduled irrigation during or after sufficient rainfall to prevent overwatering.
CIT Water Conservation and Scheduling 1
What does ET stand for in irrigation scheduling?