Research

Farmland Water Conservancy Project Management

　　The system combines information management system (MIS) and geographic information system (GIS) to conduct farmland water conservancy facilities engineering management, and uses geographic information system (GIS) and remote sensing (RS) maps to manage the project location of farmland water conservancy projects. In addition to the establishment of the location and engineering location query mechanism in the system, engineering cases are presented and output in a common numerical format (shapefile), which facilitates the integration and statistical analysis of managers on other computers or mobile devices, and promotes farmland water conservancy. Facility management is more convenient and efficient.

GIS Development and Application

　　GIS development and application covers from irrigation management and production environment databases for farmlands, to engineering and administrative information systems, integration of the GIS portal operation, property positioning, map inquiry, GIS publishing and layering, drawing and management application tools, the overall management of irrigation and performance enhancement on behalf of the Irrigation Association, the development of a mobile website and smartphone applications, a mobile-device based on-site inspection inquiry system such as a layering of farmland mapping data to accelerate the irrigation land survey process.

In addition, when a land set-aside application is accepted, the on-site inspection is now accelerated through the GIS application. Such use has tremendously enhanced efficiency and irrigation management performance.

Aquaculture Engineering

　　For Aquaculture Engineering, so far 47 production zones across 10 cities/counties have upgraded their facilities; 5 concentration areas, the sea water/fresh water supply/discharge system and the construction of roads have successfully solved most flooding situations in the fish raising zone. A stable supply of sea water has also reduced groundwater usage and enhanced better resource sustainability while taking good care of fish farmers’ livelihood. Categorized under the “Comprehensive Management Plan of the River Basin”, the drainage of 7 production zones and the fish farm concentration area are connected to the drainage system to accommodate flood disasters. Rescue training and flood measurement are enhanced to elevate local disaster contingency capabilities.

Groundwater Observation and Management

　　Right with regards to groundwater observation and management, though groundwater benefits from a good quality, stable supply, constant temperature and is relatively cheaper, when over pumped, or the pump amount miscalculated, it can cause unbalanced groundwater access, exhausting resources and increasing land subsidence. to reinforce the well access and groundwater efficiency and including land subsidence solutions and groundwater conservation, the Center has recently endeavored to create the groundwater conservation program with updated management methods: inventory of target wells, device ID-labeling, certain fish farm area groundwater monitoring and safe water level estimates, equilibrium’s analysis of plant usage and discharge, and the future smart water meter measurement control demonstration.

Agricultural Irrigation Water Control

　　AERC has developed data collection and transmission over cloud technology and IoT to control irrigation water; the required level of water in the irrigation area is estimated via Remote Sensing to cut down on excessive water supply and achieve more precise water estimation.

Enhance Capability of Environmental Analysis laboratory

　　From enhanced environmental analysis laboratory for waterbody soil sampling and examination, to agricultural products and food examination, and even border inspection, traceability mechanisms and the agricultural product label certification establishment, the Center cares and contributes to food safety.

Expand Irrigation Area

　　To increase irrigation coverage, water-shortage areas are developed with farm ponds, rainwater harvesting, and recycled water utilization. Conserved pipe irrigation development with central government’s “Big Barn” project: Actual status-based solutions, an increase of current pipe irrigation demo locations into zones. The goal is the optimization of government investment results and increased quality irrigation coverage.

GIS Application

　　Regarding GIS application, the comprehensive adoption of the system application module into the local Irrigation Associations’ MIS system, public/private sections’ systems, and Production Environment Database, and the automated reporting system have been completed with an improved mobile page for GIS. In recent years, the environmental impact brought about by climate change has elevated the priority of quick surface information collection and analysis. UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle), popular now due to their time-efficient data collection, will be used to collect crop surveys, irrigation and disaster prevention, as well as for the later production of 3D models of the hydraulic facilities.

Environmental Measurement and Inspection and Technology Assistance

As for environmental measurement, inspection and technology assistance, professional analysis on public/private environmental samples of surface water, groundwater, soil, sediment, and crops, are performed by EPA certified environmental analysis laboratories. For example, the Center has been monitoring deep groundwater as well as the status of the Shimen Reservoir, Baoshan’s Second Reservoir and the Deji Reservoir for a number of years. This is to certify the water resource for public use. The comprehensive water quality database and its correlations with environment change not only protects public water safety, but also ensure water sustainability.