while electronic
soil water sensors are able to provide good estimates of soil water
status at a given point (Farina and Bacci, 2005), provided sensor
output is appropriately interpreted (Paige and Keefer, 2008).
Synergy can be obtained by combining these technologies to
enhance their usefulness for irrigation management because the
predictive power of weather-based models (e.g. the ability to forecast
irrigation requirements and yield) can be combined with the
accuracy of field based sensors for estimating soil water status.
Holloway-Phillips et al. (2008) proposed a framework for ‘‘fusing’’
soil water models and in situ soil water sensors to predict soil
water extraction and the date of the next irrigation. Real time data
from sensors could be used to ‘‘enhance or calibrate’’ simulations
of the soil water balance to support irrigation management
(Holloway-Phillips et al., 2008).