IA participates in U.S.-hosted ISO meeting Photo credit: Stephen W. Smith, PhD, FASIC, CAIS, CLIA By Brent Q. Mecham, CID, CLWM, CIC, CLIA, CAIS
The International Standards Organization is an independent, nongovernmental international organization that develops requirements, specifications or guidelines to ensure that materials, products, processes and services are fit for their service. Each year the ISO brings together experts to share knowledge and develop these voluntary, consensus-based, market- relevant international standards that support innovation and provide solutions to global challenges in areas ranging from food safety to medical devices to irrigation.
The 2017 meeting of the ISO Technical Committee 23/SC18 Irrigation Equipment was hosted by the United States and held in June in Fort Collins, Colorado. The Irrigation Association has been actively involved with standards development for many years and participated in this meeting as part of the U.S. delegation. Six other countries participated in the event, including delegations from Spain, France, Israel, Canada, India and, for the first time, China.
The ISO standards process involves work by various groups on different aspects of irrigation equipment. During the 2017 meeting, there was considerable interest in the work done by the group that focused on remote monitoring and control technologies because of the implications
26 Irrigation TODAY | October 2017
it has for manufacturers and the differing approaches various countries have related to that technology.
The United States and Spanish delegations have led the way in standards develop- ment of “big data” in irrigated agriculture, which generally encompasses the “internet of things,” SCADA, and irrigation control and management systems.
A standard is currently being developed through the ASABE initiated by AgGateway (a nonprofit consortium of 230+ ag businesses) and its precision ag irrigation language project — known as PAIL. U.S. delegation representatives Charles Hillyer, PhD, and R. Andres Ferreyra, PhD, provided expertise to harmonize an international standard with these U.S. standards initiatives. The intent is to provide a common set of data standards for various parts of an irrigation control system, including a variety of sensors into an industry-wide format that can be used by third-party irrigation data analysis and prescription programs.
Other standards being developed include testing for clogging of drip emitters, measuring the performance of landscape irrigation sprinklers and standards for testing facilities.
The results of the work done by the ISO are important to the industry, and past work of the committee includes developing and vetting standards on numerous types of irrigation equipment.
In addition to myself and Drs. Hillyer (Texas A&M) and Ferreyra (Ag Connections), U.S. participants in the weeklong standards meetings included Stephen W. Smith, PhD, FASIC, CAIS, CLIA, from Wade Water LLC; Diganta Adhikari, PhD, from Irrometer Company Inc.; Bob Beccard, PE, from Aqua Engineering; John McHugh, PE, CID, CLIA, from Jain Irrigation; and Jean Walsh from the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers.
Next year’s meeting will take place in Israel in late October. Those interested in getting more involved in ISO activities should contact Jean Walsh, ASABE standards administrator, at
walsh@asabe.org.
Brent Q. Mecham, CID, CLWM, CIC, CLIA,
CAIS, is the industry
development director for the Irrigation Association.
Want to learn more about PAIL? See orange box on page 27.
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