WBIC Database (East Bay Municipal Utility District)

When the several northern California water agencies received grant money from the Department of Water to promote the installation of high-tech irrigation controllers, they turned to Media Net Link to build the complex data base which would hold the detailed consumption data. Scientists, hydrologists, and statisticians would be using the new tool to determine if the new irrigation technology could be installed over a large range of geographical regions and various levels of clients and substantially conserve water. Weather Based Irrigation Controllers, or WBICs as the team calls them, are being installed all over the state of California. As most Americans know, water is a precious commodity in California so any attempt to save water is nosmall issue. Each agency has a dedicated staff whose only job is to develop water conservation programs for consumers. The WBIC program is an attempt to tackle one of the largest consumptions of water in the state, namely the commercial and retail use of water for irrigation. If irrigation controllers can be constructed to only turn on when plants need the water, significant savings can be realized. To test this new technology each of the agencies, East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD), Santa Clara Valley Water District, Sonoma County Water Agency, Alameda County Water District, Contra Costa Water Agency and City of Davis were instructed to keep detailed records for each installation as well as water consumption of those irrigation controllers before and after installation. Media Net Link developed the data base, constructed the reporting system, and will be working closely with the northern California agencies over this several year program. The joint effort allows the several agencies to work closely together while still maintaining their separate conservation efforts.

The WBIC data base allows each user to log in separately and efficiently load up there consumption data and download important results. In addition the data base goes out to regional weather stations to download the corresponding climate data for those installations for comparison. The system even displays the political regions each installation is within, just in case there is a need for some political help with the effort. As time goes on, we will be enhancing the system as more and more information becomes available and other agencies sign-on. We are currently working on ways to incorporate the irrigation controller industry so they can benefit from this primary research.