The project proposal falls under the thematic field 6.2, ?Sustainable resource management – Sustainable Preservation and Management of natural and artificial resources? since it deals with issues within the following areas:
a) The project comes with a solution for an effective utilisation of water resources, whether natural or artificial, to be spread across watered and non-watered land. This would be achieved through building an equal growth and development environment for the plants by homogenously spreading the water quantities (rain or irrigation-based) reaching the soil;
b) The solution means carrying out land grading works to ensure a maximum ±3…5 cm deviation on the whole surface for the longitudinal gradient of the graded surface – which is maximum 1.5 % (depending on the watering technique) and also to prevent soil degradation;
c) The “classical” grading technology, currently used countrywide is non-effective for the following reasons:
- the machines used produce grading with over ±5 cm deviation from the longitudinal gradient of the graded land surface;
- grading works need high energy costs, for 4…5 successive cross-over
- grading means additional work for the implementation, monitoring and fine-tuning of the grading works project;
- poor quality of grading reflected in over ±5 cm deviations from the longitudinal gradient is a source of secondary degradation of soil: swamping, salinization, erosion;
- grading works are sometimes performed on improper soil categories and at improper depths, resulting in diminished soil fertility;
d) The grading technology promoted in the project implies the use of a complex, specialised laser controlled equipment able to achieve a two pass-over grading, an initial and a fine-tuning grading, with maximum ±2,5…3 cm deviations from the longitudinal gradient while excluding any potential secondary soil degradation. It also means a significant reduction of the monitoring, implementation and fine-tuning of the outreach land grading project;
e) Fewer number of times needed for the navvy machines to cross over the graded land diminishes time, manpower and fuel consumption as well as soil compaction ratio;
f) Compared to the machines known to date, the specialised grading equipment shall include the following four modules:
- a laser emitter module mounted on a telescopic frame in the centre of the surface to be graded. It will generate the reference plan for grading with gradient programming options for this plan between 0…1,5%;
- a laser receptor module mounted on the equipment in the proximity of the operating part. It captures the laser fascicle emitted in an “optimal area” when the ground elevation underneath the equipment reaches the grading elevation, in a “maximum area” when the ground elevation is higher than the grading elevation or in a “minimum area” when the ground elevation is lower than the grading elevation;
- an electronic monitoring and controlling module mounted on the equipment. It converts and amplifies the received laser information and compares it against a specifically preset grading elevation value, sets the error against the preset value and emits orders to an electro- hydraulic drive system in order to cancel the error;
- an electro-hydraulic driven system on the operating part of the equipment, controlled by the electronic module.