Advanced technology can help farmers get to the root of a growing problem ¾ overwatering in an era of increasing drought and water scarcity. A new UC Riverside system can map soil moisture tree by tree, so growers water only where and when it’s needed. This system, detailed in the journal Computer and Electronics in Agriculture, was led by the research group of Elia Scudiero. … The new system replaces limited sensor data and guesswork with detailed maps. A robot moves through an orchard measuring a property of the soil called electrical conductivity. These readings, combined with data from the fixed moisture sensors already in the ground, allow researchers to build a statistical model that predicts water content across the entire field.