Dr. Bernd Leinauer is a Professor in the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences at New Mexico State University. He has published 90 papers on water management and reducing reliance on potable sources.
Here, Bernd shares his best advice for irrigating golf courses efficiently and sustainably...
Bernd explains that continually checking and upgrading irrigation systems is key to saving water, and that golf courses need to document their savings to showcase their value as urban green spaces to the wider public.
- Assess your irrigation system and check how uniform it is
- Ensure it is operating at maximum efficiency - is your irrigation system applying the right amount of water at the right time?
- Document and communicate efforts to reduce water usage to the wider public
"We can talk about water conservation from many different angles, but it all does not make sense if your irrigation is not up to date."
What Syngenta thinks...
Climate change and increased water scarcity pose a major challenge to the golf industry - and a threat to individual businesses.
Our own research has highlighted how social media detractors accuse golf courses of ‘wasting water’, but are often the result of golf course businesses being on the backfoot when it comes to communicating about the actions they are taking to be more water sustainable.
While availability of water poses a growing risk, our technology is helping put data in the hands of superintendents to help drive precise and local data-driven decision making. Spiio soil sensors and the GreenCast Connect platform provides local ground conditions, daily insights, and the ability to understand historical and forecast climatic conditions to support irrigation plant health interventions.
With the modern irrigation systems Bernd speaks to, water use is becoming more precise and targeted, helping to save water year-round. Products including Primo, Qualibra, Hicure and Ryder can also contribute towards water use efficiency and plant stress management to balance challenges of climatic variability with producing high performance turf.
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