Alum develops Yuma's water-saving system
Arizona's Family features SIE alum Sergio Legy for automating irrigation canals in Yuma.
As the Southwest faces historic droughts and skyrocketing water demand, engineers are developing ways to conserve water and reduce waste with automation. Arizona's Family featured the work of SIE alum Sergio Legy, who helped automate irrigation canals in Yuma.
Legy, director of automation and technology for the Bard Water District, developed the system with U of A software engineering alum Hector Nava. The system takes online customer requests for water and remotely operates canal gates to deliver precise amounts to those customers. This promises greater efficiency and reduced waste by preventing overflows.
“The idea is for these gates to also communicate with each other and realize there is an overflow of water, and it can then redirect the water to a different location and help conserve that as well,” Legy said.
The automated system can also improve worker safety by allowing operators to open and close gates remotely instead of having to manually operate canal gates in extreme heat.
“Nobody wants to be here at 2 o’clock in the afternoon in 150 degrees, opening a gate. It’s probably 140 degrees on that handle,” said Nava.