Irrigation systems in smart cities coping with water scarcity: The case of Valdebebas, Madrid (Spain)

This study is aimed at assessing the performance of irrigation systems in Valdebebas, an urban development located in Madrid (Spain), as an example of smart irrigation. Subsurface drip irrigation (SDI) is the major irrigation method, although surface drip irrigation (DI) is also applied in a small area. The irrigation scheduling is made by the park manager, using the plant water requirements based on the reference evapotranspiration retrieved from a nearby weather station, and a plant coefficient K_C. In this study, plant water requirements were estimated using the Water Use Classification of Landscape Species (WUCOLS) III method, in which plant water requirements are based on the composite of plant species and not on a single species, as in the case for classical crop coefficients. Water use efficiency is assessed by the relative water supply and the relative rainfall supply indicators. The results showed that the irrigation was better managed using the estimations of the park manager compared to the WUCOLS method although the irrigation scheduling is based only on the climatic information and does not consider other variables such as the soil water content.