Nxumalo et al. (2026) Opportunities and Challenges of Sensor- and Acoustic-Based Irrigation Monitoring Technologies in South Africa: A Scoping Review with Machine Learning-Enhanced Evidence Synthesis

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Identification

• Journal: AgriEngineering
• Year: 2026
• Date: 2026-04-23
• Authors: Gift Siphiwe Nxumalo, Tondani Sanah Ramabulana, Noxolo Felicia Vilakazi, Attila Nagy
• DOI: 10.3390/agriengineering8050161

Research Groups

Not specified

Short Summary

This scoping review analyzes irrigation monitoring technologies in South Africa, finding that while water quality and remote sensing are prevalent, there is a critical lack of research into acoustic monitoring despite significant infrastructure water losses.

Objective

• To systematically analyze the application and distribution of sensor-based and acoustic irrigation monitoring technologies in South Africa between 2000 and 2025.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: National (South Africa)
• Temporal Scale: 2000–2025

Methodology and Data

• Models used: Sentence-BERT (transformer-based NLP), UMAP (dimensionality reduction), and HDBSCAN (unsupervised clustering).
• Data sources: 59 peer-reviewed publications retrieved from Web of Science and Scopus.

Main Results

• Research Distribution: Water quality monitoring is the most studied area (42.4%), followed by remote sensing (25.4%), with soil moisture sensing remaining limited.
• Technological Gap: No peer-reviewed studies were identified for acoustic monitoring in South African irrigation, despite international leak detection accuracies of 95–98%.
• Infrastructure Status: Over 50% of irrigation schemes are older than 30 years, with poorly managed systems experiencing water losses of 30–60%.
• Efficiency Gains: Experimental implementations of monitoring technologies reported water savings between 15% and 30%.
• Adoption Barriers: Key obstacles include financial inaccessibility, limited digital literacy, infrastructure unreliability, and weak institutional coordination.

Contributions

• Provides a systematic mapping of the irrigation monitoring landscape in South Africa.
• Highlights a critical research and implementation gap regarding acoustic leak detection.
• Proposes a strategic framework for modernization focusing on low-cost sensor networks and predictive advisory systems.

Funding

Not specified

Citation

@article{Nxumalo2026Opportunities,
  author = {Nxumalo, Gift Siphiwe and Ramabulana, Tondani Sanah and Vilakazi, Noxolo Felicia and Nagy, Attila},
  title = {Opportunities and Challenges of Sensor- and Acoustic-Based Irrigation Monitoring Technologies in South Africa: A Scoping Review with Machine Learning-Enhanced Evidence Synthesis},
  journal = {AgriEngineering},
  year = {2026},
  doi = {10.3390/agriengineering8050161},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.3390/agriengineering8050161}
}