Networked Drought sensors to facilitate data driven irrigation of tree collection at Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE)

Tender description

RBGE is looking for a supplier to provide a proven solution which can monitor soil water availability via an array of standalone sensors. The initial deployment will be to 10 locations across the RBGE Edinburgh Estate. The sensors can be installed by RBGE staff. Lot 1: The feedback from the sensors will need to be recorded in a cloud based solution which is accessible by either; the latest edition of standard web browser software, on both PC and Mobile phones, or dedicated applications provided by the supplier. Sensors should be able to be installed to allow monitoring of water availability at different soil depths at a single monitoring location. The sensors should operate on a network and provide real time feedback on approaching drought conditions. Sensors should give feedback on soil water tension and volumetric water content. This may be achieved by using either sensor with multifunctionality, or multiple sensors. The Edinburgh Garden has good 2/4/5G mobile coverage. Alternative solutions such as the use of the LoRaWAN network can also be considered. RBGE Wi-Fi coverage is for buildings only not outside spaces at this time. Expected service life without interruption, i.e. changing of batteries, or upgrade to the device firmware should be 6 months or greater. Water resistance of the hardware should be to a relevant known standard i.e. IP65/IP67. Sensors and sender units will be installed in publicly accessible garden areas and should be specified with appropriate casings and/or fixings to ensure they are discreet and tamperproof. The cloud hosted environment will be hosted by a known Tier 1 service provider. The database/hosting environment is to comply with Cyber Security Principles, i.e. Cyber Essential Plus or equivalent. Solutions must comply with RBGE obligation around GDPR / Data Protection. All data from the solution must be exportable in common user format such as CSV, Excel etc. Application provision either in a PC or Web Based format that allow for the following functionality: reporting functions on device data, reporting and data integration functionality. Feedback should be easy to understand and should instruct the end user when additional irrigation is required to prevent drought damage to trees.