A LoRaWAN-based IoT platform for smart irrigation in olive groves

Irrigation drives water consumption in agriculture, essential for crop productivity and conserving water resources. Smart irrigation optimizes water usage, enhances yields, and supports sustainability. Integrating Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and the Internet of Things (IoT) shows potential for reducing water consumption, but hardware, software, and connectivity solutions are still developing. Low-Power Wide-Area Access (LPWA) technologies enable energy-efficient IoT applications with long-range communication. LoRaWAN ensures secure data transmission up to 15 km using a single gateway. This paper presents a LoRaWAN-based prototype irrigation platform developed within the AREThOU5A framework, implemented in a 22-hectare olive grove with Kalamon olives in Greece. The system monitors soil moisture levels using IoT end nodes with low-cost microcontrollers and embedded sensors. Each node measures moisture at depths of 30 cm, 60 cm, and 90 cm, operating on battery power for months and communicating via LoRaWAN. Data is transmitted through a LoRaWAN gateway to a cloud-based infrastructure using 4G connectivity, allowing real-time access via online dashboards. Collected data will inform smart irrigation strategies, maximizing water savings and ensuring reliable connectivity. A robust software development system has integrated IoT subsystems for olive grove management, centralizing measurement data in a web-accessible database. This enables real-time monitoring, trend analysis, and cultivation optimization. The system is hosted on a public cloud platform, using Docker for flexible deployment and data management. In the olive grove in Peta, a specialized InfluxDB routine optimizes water use, operating effectively for two years. An annual dashboard highlights key data points, including soil moisture, temperature readings, and health diagnostics. Water consumption was reduced by 42 % in 2020 and 25 % in 2021. An identification application secures user data management and supports sustainability.