An irrigation audit is a qualitative assessment of an irrigation system’s overall condition. It aims to estimate potential dollar and water savings through conscious practices. This procedure also helps determine the overall distribution uniformity (DU) of water and create the most efficient watering schedule for water conservation
Who Conducts an Irrigation Audit?
Irrigation audits that are in compliance with international guidelines are performed by professional contractors and Certified Landscape Irrigation Auditors (CLIA). CLIAs often perform two-stage irrigation audits: the first stage is more of a visual assessment of the irrigation water system, while the second stage focuses on scientific system tests to obtain data on plant water requirements and precipitation rates.
3 Main Parts of an Irrigation Audit
An irrigation audit consists of three major activities which all lead to the development of a cost-efficient irrigation schedule that is best for the clients. With the help of irrigation audit checklist for maintenance, CLIAs go through these stages to gather valuable information and recommend site-specific solutions.
Site inspection
Without scheduled maintenance, irrigation systems deteriorate over time. Clients would likely not notice this, which can lead to prolonged excessive water consumption and decreased plant performance. Site inspections help CLIAs have an initial assessment of landscape condition and immediately identify areas that needs fixing. After the site inspection, they perform tests to gain more scientific evidence.
Performance testing
The most common type of test for irrigation audits is the “catch can test”, which helps provide the most accurate value of precipitation rate within the landscape. Depending on the size of the property, catch can tests are spread across different sprinkler systems in different zones to produce area-specific data.
Irrigation scheduling
Once the visual inspection and performance tests are done, CLIAs recommend a site-specific, science-based irrigation schedule. The process of professional irrigation audits help avoid creating schedules based on mere generalizations and assumptions. Especially for landscape properties as large as sports fields, city parks, and golf courses, it is critical to optimize irrigation schedules according to the different precipitation rates in individual zones.
Save Time and Promote Water Conservation With iAuditor
Irrigation audits are vital in helping conserve our planet’s most precious resource. Professional landscape irrigation maintenance contractors and CLIAs play a big role in reaching out to more homeowners and property managers and educating them about the benefits of an irrigation audit.
Irrigation audit professionals can utilize iAuditor, the world’s #1 mobile inspection app, to streamline irrigation audits and offer their services to more clients.
- Modernize irrigation audits and convert irrigation system maintenance checklists into digital
- Customize checklists according to your own irrigation audit methodology
- Store up-to-date information about the irrigation system such as controllers, number of irrigated acres, system improvements, head locations, spacing, operating pressure, sprinkler make, model, and nozzle sizes
- Take photos of audit areas (e.g. sprinkler system zones and physical landscape state) and annotate for easier visual reference
- Easily note results of catch can tests and detail findings and recommendations
- Assign tasks/actions to the assigned personnel who will fulfill irrigation requirements
- Save time on manual data re-entry and let iAuditor automatically generate professional irrigation audit reports for your clients
- Setup automatic notifications for scheduled irrigation maintenance audits
- Sign off accomplished irrigation audits with electronic signatures
- Easily access irrigation maintenance records with iAuditor’s secure cloud storage
