Journal of Cleaner Production 315 (2021) 128048

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Journal of Cleaner Production

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jclepro

Designing smart and sustainable irrigation: A case study

Henner Gimpel a, Valerie Graf-Drasch a, *, Florian Hawlitschek b, Kathrin Neumeier c
a
Chair of Digital Management, University of Hohenheim, and FIM Research Center, Project Group Business & Information Systems Engineering of the Fraunhofer FIT,
Augsburg, Germany
b
FES Frankfurter Entsorgungs- und Service GmbH, Germany
c
FIM Research Center, University of Augsburg, Germany

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Handling editor: Cecilia Maria Villas Bôas de Water scarcity is becoming an increasingly important issue – also for cities in the Western world. As key-
Almeida regulators of cities’ micro-climate, urban trees suffer from this scarcity fueled by rising temperatures. With
climate change on our doorsteps, cities turn to smart city concepts that harness advanced information tech­
Keywords: nologies’ potential to conserve scarce resources. Regarding withering trees, we suggest that a smart city should
Water scarcity
consider putting smart irrigation systems in place. We use a design science research approach to establish,
Trees
demonstrate, and evaluate how a smart irrigation system for urban trees can be designed. In doing so, we
Irrigation
IoT describe how IoT and data analytics can be leveraged as the backbone of sustainable and smart irrigation. Our
Smart city design is informed by theory and experts, including city administration representatives, IoT specialists, and
Sustainability botanists. A prototypical instantiation including 18 sensors at eight trees evaluates the design knowledge’s
viability in Frankfurt am Main (Germany). First insights into collected data in the pilot area indicate promising
effects. Projected to the currently 5000 young trees in Frankfurt, we argue that water distribution within one
round of irrigation in spring could be reduced by up to 1 million liters.

1. Introduction
Water scarcity is a global challenge. The increasing frequency and
intensity of extreme weather events deplete water reservoirs and
diminish groundwater levels in many corners of the globe (Heggie,
2020). While water scarcity is primarily associated with drinking water
in naturally arid countries, it has crept up to drying out humid countries
and particularly urban areas (Mallet and Arnold, 2020). Specifically, in
large cities, increasing water demands rooted in urbanization coincide
with sealed surfaces (Koop and van Leeuwen, 2017) and dwindling
groundwater levels (Stavenhagen et al., 2018). During the summer
months, this often results in severe water scarcity in urban areas with
serious consequences for urban green spaces and trees. Cities have
already started to announce chief heat officers to keep heat conse­
quences at bay (see e.g., Pittmann, 2021; Wray, 2021). Regular irriga­
tion preventing urban trees from withering under the heat is paramount,
given their positive and vital effects: Trees considerably define a city’s
micro-climate (Lüttge and Buckeridge, 2020) and air quality (Oliveira
et al., 2011). Further, urban trees are essential for well-being as they
form a key place for human recreation in cities (Luvisi and Lorenzini,
2014). A recent study even found neurological evidence that urban
green spaces reduce mental stress, fatigue, and even psychiatric
morbidity (Tost et al., 2019).
An open question remains, however, how cities can best irrigate in
times of droughts and scarcity. Clearly, smart irrigation strategies are an
important imperative for cities to avoid unnecessary exacerbation of
water scarcity. Smart irrigation systems, in fact, are considered a part of
the global concept of smart cities (Canales-Ide et al., 2019) and thus
currently a ‘hot topic’ (Masseroni et al., 2020). They root in the rapid
development and implementation of ‘smart’ and Internet of Things (IoT)
based technologies, which come along with high efficiency and bring
important as well as useful benefits to citizens (Nižetić et al., 2020).
Smart irrigation systems accurately determine plants’ water demands
and map an optimal water supply to minimize water losses. Most
distinguished forms of such systems comprise sensor data (e.g., soil
moisture sensors or tensiometers) as a basis for irrigation decision
models (Masseroni et al., 2020). A plethora of smart irrigation efforts
has already been conducted in agricultural contexts such as precision
farming (Goap et al., 2018) or crop irrigation (Villarrubia et al., 2017).
However, studies investigating the design of smart irrigation systems in

* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: henner.gimpel@uni-hohenheim.de (H. Gimpel), valerie.graf-drasch@uni-hohenheim.de (V. Graf-Drasch), florian.hawlitschek@fes-frankfurt.de
(F. Hawlitschek), kathrin.neumeier@fim-rc.de (K. Neumeier).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.128048
Received 15 February 2021; Received in revised form 15 June 2021; Accepted 19 June 2021
Available online 23 June 2021
0959-6526/© 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
H. Gimpel et al.
urban settings are scarce: To date, some research in the context of urban
green spaces exists (e.g., Froiz-Míguez et al., 2020; Rivas-Sánchez et al.,
2019), which does cover urban green spaces but not trees in particular.
Further, prior studies describe and investigate smart irrigation systems,
which are often based on moisture sensors that do not capture the water
potential of the soil (e.g., based on tensiometer data) and thus cannot
measure plant available water (Thalheimer, 2013).
Acknowledging that urban trees shape the climate of cities and the
(mental) well-being of their citizens (Tost et al., 2019), we argue that
there is a significant research gap in the current body of literature
regarding the design of smart and sustainable irrigation systems for
urban environments. Our study, to the best of our knowledge, is among
the first to propose a design for a smart irrigation system for urban trees.
This system leverages data collected from soil moisture sensors as well as
tensiometers. While core rationales of the agricultural context can be
transferred to the irrigation of urban trees, there are notable differences
between the two irrigation cases: First, compared to croplands, a tree’s
water demand is difficult to predict. Particularly urban trees are com­
plex, highly individual ecosystems within their surroundings. Second,
urban trees are typically irrigated manually instead of installing an
automated irrigation infrastructure. Third, if irrigation is supported by
adequate technology, greater distances and concrete buildings within
cities impose higher demands on networks and ICT. In this notion,
established irrigation solutions are not directly applicable to the use case
of urban trees. Hence, our research question reads:
1.1. How to design a smart irrigation system for urban trees?
The main objective of our study is to initiate design efforts for smart
irrigation systems that are suitable for urban trees. We thus apply a design
science research (DSR) approach to propose design knowledge for a smart
irrigation system for urban trees. DSR is a search process aiming to discover
an effective solution to a problem (Hevner et al., 2004). Our design
knowledge comprises a set of design principles and guidelines that guide
smart irrigation system’s development and implementation. Our system
builds on IoT and sensors based on the Internet of Things (IoT), which we
prototypically instantiated in Frankfurt am Main as a smart German city. In
2019 more than 4000 out of 200,000 trees in Frankfurt have died from
drought, leading to increasing calls for action (Stillbauer, 2020). The pro­
totype includes 18 sensors at eight pilot trees. First insights into the
collected data over a three-month period corroborate the artifact’s viability
and support the core idea that collected data will lead to water savings and,
thus, sustainable irrigation strategies.
We contribute to research and practice on smart urban irrigation.
Regarding research, we propose theory-inspired and practice-informed
design knowledge on smart irrigation systems of urban trees. Thereby,
we build on the energy informatics framework of Watson et al. (2010)
and discuss its transferability to the use case of smart irrigation.
Regarding practice, our research is triggered by practitioners’ needs
calling for sustainable irrigation solutions in cities. The resulting design
knowledge outlines how to design such Information Systems (IS) to
support smart and sustainable irrigation decisions and guide practical
instantiations.
2. Theoretical background
2.1. Smart cities
A wide array of smart city definitions is available (Gimpel et al.,
2019). Giffinger et al. (2007) regard a city as smart if it is enabled by ICT
to act in a forward-looking manner, concerning the six dimensions of
economy, people, governance, mobility, environment, and living. With
sustainability as a key issue for the population, scholars primarily focus
on smart cities’ environmental aspects, aiming at more sustainable
development through resource conservations associated with IS (Gimpel
et al., 2019). This highlights that advanced IS form the basis of smart
2
Journal of Cleaner Production 315 (2021) 128048
cities (Sodhro et al., 2019). A prominent example of such advanced IS
refers to IoT. IoT describes the connectivity of physical objects to the
Internet (Oberländer et al., 2018). As this connectivity provides signif­
icant process improvements and efficiencies, IoT is considered a key
enabler for smart cities (Nižetić et al., 2020) and public services (Vels­
berg et al., 2020). Various smart city services already capitalize on IoT
benefits, such as effective waste management, traffic solutions, opti­
mized administration, or efficient healthcare (Velsberg et al., 2020). As
IoT is expected to evolve into an increasingly sophisticated network of
sensors and physical objects involving machines, tools, and places, all
kinds of everyday objects can be integrated via smart data-sensing de­
vices, such as people, animals, and also plants and soil (Bibri, 2018).
Thus, IoT allows us to gather previously non-available information
on urban trees’ soil conditions to approximate water demand and shift
towards demand-oriented irrigation. This contributes to more sustain­
able water use, ensuring urban trees’ survival while not exacerbating
scarce water resources. Such applications of advanced IS to address
sustainability issues are categorized as “Green IS.”
2.2. Green IS and the energy informatics framework
Green IS address issues associated with IS use by individuals, groups,
organizations, and society to help eco-sustainable practices to emerge
and diffuse (Watson et al., 2010). The impacts of Green IS on environ­
mental sustainability can be classified into.
1) direct effects due to the physical existence and use of IS (i.e., “green
in IS”),
2) indirect effects due to more sustainable business processes (i.e.,
“green by IS”),
3) and medium- or long-term changes of economic structures and be­
haviors towards more sustainability (Henkel and Kranz, 2018;
Wunderlich et al., 2013).
The seminal work of Watson et al. (2010) summarizes Green IS’ po­
tential to contribute to environmental sustainability in a central frame­
work, known as the “energy informatics framework.” The core idea is
expressed in the equation Energy + Information < Energy. The information
term points to an IS managing energy supply and demand to reduce total
demand. To this end, the IS integrates three distinct types of technologies:
Flow and sensor networks on the supply side and sensitized objects on the
demand side. First, a flow network refers to transport components sup­
porting the movement of resources (e.g., electricity, oil, air, water). Second,
a sensor network refers to spatially distributed devices that report the status
of a physical item or environmental condition. Finally, a sensitized object
refers to a physical good that a consumer manages and can sense and report
data about its use (Watson et al., 2010). Further, the framework considers
key stakeholders (i.e., consumers, suppliers, governments) influencing the
deployment of the system and different “eco goals” (i.e., efficiency, effec­
tiveness, and equity) shaping stakeholder actions.
Despite its focus on energy, Watson et al. (2010) suggest its appli­
cability to further scarce resources. Hence, extant research applied it in
various other contexts (e.g., Loock et al., 2013; Teubner and Flath 2015;
Seidel et al., 2018 and recently discussed its transferability to water
contexts proposing a “water informatics framework” for the purpose of
smart irrigation (Gimpel et al., 2020).
2.3. Smart irrigation
Smart irrigation is a rather recent and innovative concept – which,
based on wireless networks of sensors, focuses on water use efficiency in
(agricultural) irrigation (Nasiakou et al., 2016). It includes a group of
techniques and often demands the accurate estimation of plant water
requirements. While it is certain that information technology can play
an important role in water conservation (Mutchek and Williams, 2010),
especially in the context of irrigation management (Roy et al., 2021),
H. Gimpel et al. Journal of Cleaner Production 315 (2021) 128048

there is no exact and common definition of the smart irrigation concept
across various disciplines (Canales-Ide et al., 2019). Within the scope of
this study, we thus refer to the concept of smart systems as proposed by
Alter (2020), which considers the availability of information as a
fundamental prerequisite for smartness in terms of information pro­
cessing, internal regulation, action in the world, and knowledge acqui­
sition. Consequently, smart irrigation systems critically rely on the
availability of sensor data.
To provide a comprehensive overview of the current body of litera­
ture that addresses the design of smart irrigation in agriculture and
especially in urban environments, we conducted a structured literature
search. We used the database Web of Science. Concerning our search
string, we included the term “smart irrigat*” in either title, abstract, or
keywords. The initial search string yielded 137 studies.
To ensure a high-quality sample, we included studies from journals
with an impact factor larger than 2.5. We chose the impact factor in line
with Henkel and Kranz (2018) as a criterion, as it is a popular numerical
measurement method in scientific work (Garfield, 2006). While Garfield
(2006), creator of the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI), acknowl­
edges that the journal impact factor is not a flawless measure, he argues
that it is well established and that a superior metric remains to be found.
Typically, an impact factor larger than 3.0 is conceived as a good
threshold (Sci Journal, 2020). A factor of 3.0, however, would exclude
relevant sustainability-focused journals. We, therefore, reduced the
threshold to 2.5 to capture valuable contributions. After filtering for the
impact factor, 59 studies remained.
We carefully screened the list of studies based on title and abstract.
Only articles with the main purpose of irrigation based on sensor in­
formation were considered for a detailed review. We furthermore
excluded articles, which did not describe a design or development of an
irrigation system but focused on theoretical modeling or survey-based
research. Finally, we excluded articles, which only addressed indoor
systems, such as greenhouses or tunnel farms, or systems designed for
residential purposes, that is, home appliances or lawn irrigation systems.
By applying this list of inclusion criteria, we ended with a final set of 14
studies summarized in Table 1.
A vast majority of the identified articles address the design of smart
irrigation systems in the context of agricultural settings such as precision
farming (Goap et al., 2018) and crop irrigation (Villarrubia et al., 2017).
With only a few exceptions (Casadei et al., 2021; Haghverdi et al., 2021),
the proposed systems rely on wireless sensors, including the measure­
ment of soil moisture. The use of tensiometers is only suggested within
the context of two studies dealing with the more general issues of
designing a Smart Irrigation Decision Support System (Navarro-Hellín
et al., 2016) and an IoT framework for smart irrigation (Campos et al.,
2019).
Only two studies address the design of smart irrigation systems in an
urban setting, that is, in the context of urban green spaces (Froiz-Míguez
et al., 2020; Rivas-Sánchez et al., 2019). However, none of the retrieved
articles addressed the issue of irrigating urban trees.
We thus argue that in the current body of literature, there is a sig­
nificant research gap regarding the design of smart irrigation systems for
urban environments and urban trees in particular. Our study, to the best
of our knowledge, is among the first to propose a design for a smart
irrigation system for urban trees that leverages data collected from soil
moisture sensors as well as tensiometers.
3. Research approach
We apply a DSR approach. Design science and behavioral science
constitute the two scientific paradigms in the IS research discipline
(Hevner et al., 2004). While behavioral science seeks to develop and
justify theories for human and organizational behavior, design science
seeks to extend the boundaries of human problem-solving and organi­
zational capabilities by creating artifacts. Design science is not about
truth but usefulness. It is a search process (Hevner et al., 2004). Hence,

Table 1
Results of literature review.
Source Field of application Technology Research Contribution

Agri- Urban Urban Soil moisture Tensio- Wireless

culture green Trees sensors meters sensors
Spaces

Rivas-Sánchez et al. ✓ ✓ Design of a low-cost automated irrigation system for green walls
(2019)
Keswani et al. ✓ ✓ ✓ Design of a precise irrigation monitoring and control mechanism for
(2019) irrigation in precision agriculture by the precise management of water
valve using neural network-based prediction of soil water requirement
Goap et al. (2018) ✓ ✓ ✓ Design of a sensor and weather data-based irrigation system for
precision farming.
Villarrubia et al. ✓ ✓ ✓ Design of a multi-agent system for monitoring and automating crop
(2017) irrigation
Navarro-Hellín ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Design and test of a sensor and climate data-based automatic smart
et al. (2016) irrigation decision support system
Campos et al. ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Design of an IoT framework for smart irrigation
(2019)
Krishnan et al. ✓ ✓ ✓ Design of a smart irrigation system that helps farmers water their
(2020) agricultural fields using Global System for Mobile communication
(GSM)
Roy et al. (2021) ✓ ✓ ✓ Design of an IoT-based dynamic irrigation scheduling system (e.g.,
farmer-friendly user interface)
Haghverdi et al. ✓ ✓ Design of irrigation water conservation strategies
(2021)
Casadei et al. ✓ ✓ Design of a web-based irrigation decision support system adaptable and
(2021) scalable to individual farms
Ramzan et al. ✓ ✓ ✓ Design of an “Internet of Trees” (IOTr) concept that monitors and
(2020) regulates the water content of plantations
Froiz-Míguez et al. ✓ ✓ ✓ Design, implementation, and empirical validation of an IoT smart
(2020) irrigation systems for fog computing applications
Tiglao et al. (2020) ✓ ✓ ✓ Design of an alternative, low-cost irrigation mechanism to monitor and
regulate the irrigation of agricultural lands
This study ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Development of design principles for an urban irrigation system for
trees based on sensor-data

3
H. Gimpel et al.
the search process description (i.e., the methods) and its results (i.e., the
design knowledge) are somewhat interwoven. DSR aims to achieve
satisfactory designs and provide prescriptive knowledge and theories for
design and action (Gregor et al., 2020).
Design science artifacts occur on three different levels (Gregor and
Hevner, 2013): Level 3 contributions are well-developed design theories
about studied phenomena. Level 2 contributions are more general and
abstract in the form of nascent design theories (e.g., design principles,
models). Level 1 contributions are specific instantiations in the form of
products and processes.
Our work aims at level 2 and 1 contributions. Our level 2 design
knowledge involves an overarching framework setting the context for
the smart irrigation of urban trees along with design objectives. Further,
we develop and evaluate design principles (DPs) and design guidelines
(DGs). While DPs are generic descriptions of central functions of an
instantiation, DGs are more detailed recommendations for implement­
ing the DPs.
Further, the exemplary instantiation in a smart city is a level 1
contribution that serves as an evaluation of the more abstract design
knowledge. Depending on application domain maturity and solution
maturity, a DSR artifact can be classified as an a) improvement, b) in­
vention, or c) exaptation (Gregor and Hevner, 2013). Our targeted
contribution can be classified as “exaptation,” as a known solution is
extended to a new problem, i.e., smart irrigation as established in
agricultural contexts is adapted to a new domain regarding urban trees.
As design knowledge is prescriptive knowledge and has no truth
value in itself, the validity of DSR results must be assessed through
descriptive knowledge obtained in the DSR process (Sonnenberg and
vom Brocke, 2012). In the search for a satisfactory design, evaluation
against descriptive knowledge is key. We evaluate our design artifacts
against the design objectives from an outcome-oriented, practical view
(Peffers et al., 2018).
Our DSR approach follows the established process of Peffers et al.
(2007), comprising six iterative steps captured in Fig. 1. Triggered by a
real-world problem, our approach’s official entry point is a “problem-­
centered initiation.”
The research process maps onto this paper’s structure: Section 1
motivated our study by outlining the problem and respective research
gap, and section 2 introduced the theoretical basis (step I). Section 4
presents the study’s design objectives (step II) and describes our arti­
fact’s design (step III). The design is informed by theory (engrained in
literature) and practice (expert interviews). Section 5 demonstrates and
describes the instantiation of a prototype in a real-world environment
(step IV). An evaluation of the design knowledge through the presented
prototype is detailed in section 6 (step V). Overall, this paper commu­
nicates the results of our DSR approach (step VI).
4. Development of design knowledge
The development of our design knowledge was informed by theory
and practice. Regarding theory, particularly the energy informatics
framework (Watson et al., 2010) adapted to the context of water served
as input. On this background, we identified technology affordances
guiding the development of the DPs. Additionally, prior Green IS design
principles by Hilpert et al. (2013) guided the formulation of the DPs and
DGs. Regarding practice, we conducted six expert interviews with five
Fig. 1. Our Design Science Research approach (based on Peffers et al., 2007).
4
Journal of Cleaner Production 315 (2021) 128048
key stakeholders of a smart urban irrigation system: Two representatives
of irrigation service providers (ISP1 and 2), one IoT-expert (IE), one
interview partner in his functions as a botanical expert (BE1) and smart
city representative in charge of the public green spaces (SCR), and
another botanical expert (BE2). The interviews were conducted in
German, the native language of all interviewees, and translated to En­
glish afterward. We used a semi-structured interview protocol that fol­
lowed the TORE framework (Adam et al., 2014), which provides
conceptual guidance during a requirements engineering process for an
IS.
4.1. Design objectives and the irrigation informatics framework
This study aims to develop design knowledge for a smart irrigation
system for urban trees. To ensure that an instantiation of the proposed
design knowledge contributes to stakeholders’ goals, we derived ex­
pectations from expert interviews. ISP2 summarizes: “What motivates me
to do this is the goal to use less water, while trees are becoming ‘healthier’.”
On that basis, we developed a design meta requirement which reads as
follows:
The instantiated design knowledge should support city administra­
tions in making demand-oriented irrigation decisions to protect
urban trees while preserving water resources.
On this background, our design involves developing an overarching
framework setting the context for the smart irrigation system of urban
trees along with design objectives and guiding the design of the DPs and
DGs.
Developing this framework, we build on the water informatics
framework of Gimpel et al. (2020), which is based on the energy
informatics framework of Watson et al. (2010), and apply it to our
study’s specific use case: Irrigating urban trees. Watson et al. (2010) see
the lack of information enabling and motivating solutions as a problem,
requiring an IS at the framework’s core. Similarly, in the case of irri­
gation, there is currently a lack of information regarding trees’ water
demand: “I think what is missing is the knowledge of how much water a tree
needs” (BE2). Thus, an IS as part of our framework incorporates infor­
mation on the water demand and supply, enabling city administrations
to make demand-oriented decisions. ISP2 explains: “Sensors are perma­
nently pointing to current conditions. Suppose we can integrate this data with
additional data like temperature, rain, irrigation date, and amount. In that
case, we can better manage the irrigation, and we will get better and better
with the help of sensors […], and if this is successful and we learn enough
from the data, we will change the irrigation process.”
However, considering the specifics of this use case, several refinements
need to be made as already proposed on a more general level by Gimpel
et al. (2020): First, on the supply side, water as part of the natural water
cycle significantly differs from energy, as a) natural supply as a result of
weather phenomena is not controllable and b) exists in various aggregate
states and purity levels (e.g., drinking or process water). Thus, sensor
networks need to report different water supply sources available to urban
trees, such as precipitation as natural or manual irrigation as artificial
supply. Accordingly, flow networks include multiple supply ways – natural
ones (i.e., precipitation, air, soil) and artificial ones (i.e., transport routes
for manual irrigation). Second, on the demand side, trees are biological
objects and thus represent complex ecosystems while at the same time they
H. Gimpel et al.
are part of the natural ecosystem surrounding them. Accordingly, the water
demand is complex, if not impossible, to capture precisely. It can only be
approximated with sensors, for example, in the soil, as opposed to technical
objects that simply report data on their demand, hence requiring a
demand-side sensor network. On top of that, trees’ water demand cannot
be managed, as natural influences in the ecosystem such as climate and
weather conditions significantly determine the demand causing low
demand-side flexibility. Accordingly, the overarching goal of this frame­
work for smart irrigation needs to be altered and reads as follows: The
integrated IS aims to provide information indicating the water demand of
trees to balance supply and demand better.
Fig. 2 summarizes the “irrigation informatics framework” as an
edited version of the framework of Watson et al. (2010) and Gimpel et al.
(2020) specified to our use case.
Based on this framework and expert insights, we concretized the
meta requirement to four design objectives, which inform the design of
the smart irrigation system:
1) The smart irrigation system monitors soil parameters based on which
trees’ water demand can be approximated.
2) The smart irrigation system captures information on the water
supply.
3) The smart irrigation system enables the adaptation of irrigation to
foster demand-oriented irrigation of urban trees.
4) The smart irrigation system aims at a cost-effective implementation
leveraging the scalability of software and data analytics to reduce
investments in hardware.
The design objectives root in the following rationales: To make
demand-oriented and sustainable irrigation decisions, the IS needs to
provide a solid decision base, both on demand and supply sides. First,
regarding the demand side, the IS needs to monitor parameters in the
soil as trees naturally provide no information on their water demand or
soil conditions. This information allows approximating the water de­
mand of trees. BE1 expects the system to collect “parameters that indicate
how much water is available for the tree in the soil” and to “monitor the
parameters promptly.”
Second, regarding the supply side, the IS needs to capture the water
supply from both natural and artificial sources, i.e., rain and irrigation.
Tracking precipitation allows determining the additional supply needed
by irrigation. Tracking irrigation allows determining the water use ef­
ficiency. BE1 expects to „see at what time which tree was irrigated by which
Fig. 2. Smart irrigation framework (based on Watson et al. (2010) and Gimpel et al. (2020)).
5
Journal of Cleaner Production 315 (2021) 128048
amount. This allows to see how the parameters change afterward” and
„control whether the water reached the tree or went down the drain.”
Third, based on 1) and 2) the IS enables demand-oriented irrigation.
By capturing the available water supply and monitoring and analyzing
data from the soil, the demand can be better met with proper irrigation
strategies instead of irrigating each tree with lump amounts at fixed
intervals, which is common in German cities. To this end, heat stress
caused by underirrigation and moisture stress caused by overirrigation
can be avoided as the IS facilitates the adaptation of irrigation amounts.
The IS contributes to the more efficient use of water and avoids the
waste of water. By better aligning irrigation to the demand, the IS helps
to reduce the water supply efficiently. BE1 summarizes: “It is about
determining an optimal water supply in a demand-oriented way, avoiding the
withering of trees and continuous heat stress, as well as over-irrigation […]
while saving respective water resources.”
Fourth, smart city projects are typically cost-constrained, limiting
the demand-side sensor network’s scope on trees. Hence, the IS aims at a
cost-effective implementation by leveraging data analytics capabilities
and software scalability to reduce hardware investments. This fourth
design objective will not manifest in concrete design implications as it is
considered a design restriction and imperative underlying design
choices.
In summary, the four major design objectives are in line with the
three pillars of sustainability (Barbier, 1987), extending the framework
of Watson et al. (2010) to include social and economic goals in addition
to ecological goals.
4.2. Design principles
DPs represent prescriptive statements indicating how to achieve a
design objective (Gregor et al., 2020). Combining the “irrigation infor­
matics framework” and insights from the expert interviews, we derived
three DPs. These DPs represent central functions of the IS, which point to
the interaction of the IS with the central technological elements of the
framework (i.e., supply-side sensor and flow networks, demand-side
sensor networks). Further, the DPs aim at the design objectives 1–3.
DP 1: Monitor soil parameters that allow conclusions to be drawn
about a tree’s water demand.
DP 2: Track the water supply each tree received.
DP 3: Enable decision-makers to adapt the irrigation amount of each
tree.
H. Gimpel et al.
First, the IS should monitor the soil parameters that indicate trees’
state. On that basis, the water demand of a tree can be approximated by
experts. Second, the IS should be designed to track water supply to
capture information on water amounts each tree received. Third, based
on the monitoring and tracking functions, the IS enables the adaptation of
discrete water units transported through the flow network for irrigation
purposes. The IE summarizes the three DPs: „The application receives a
multitude of data, that should be compared to each other and to weather data
allowing experts to conduct rigor analyses and make predictions.”
If these three DPs inform the IS design, the IS should support city
administrations in making demand-oriented irrigation decisions to
protect urban trees while preserving water resources.
4.3. Design guidelines
As our design should encourage and guide practical instantiations,
we further develop multiple DGs for each DP providing further imple­
mentation details. The guidelines were discussed in multiple iterative
rounds. Therein, we refined them based on the novel insights from the
prototypical instantiation.
4.3.1. Monitoring
The DGs associated with DP1 “monitoring” particularly address the
interaction of the IS with the demand-side, i.e., trees, which takes place
via IoT-based sensors. Thus, design decisions regarding the IoT-based
sensor network are central.
The DGs’ development detailing DP 1 was informed by core ratio­
nales of smart irrigation in agricultural contexts. García et al. (2020)
summarize that an agricultural IoT irrigation system is typically divided
into four layers: Devices, communication, services, and application.
Devices refer to the sensing entities, communication refers to the data
transmission, services refer to the storage, synchronization and fusion,
and the application layer refers to users’ interaction with the IoT system
to visualize the gathered data or receive alarms (see e.g., Campos et al.,
2019; Fraga-Lamas et al., 2020; Chew et al., 2020; Khan et al., 2018).
Our four DGs correspond to these four layers.
Considering the multifaceted and complex characteristics of biolog­
ical ecosystems such as trees, central considerations regarding the sen­
sors have to be made, which we summarize in DG 1.1: Trees, as opposed
to technical sensitized objects (e.g., washing machines), do not report
their water demand. Thus, respective demand can be inter alia
approximated via captured data on soil conditions. This data is derived
from a demand-side sensor network installed in the soil.
The more sensors available, the more accurate approximations are.
But under consideration of the fourth design objective (financial re­
strictions), we suggest identifying reference trees within the city which
are equipped with sensors and allow to draw conclusions about trees’
water demands in similar surrounding conditions (as proposed by
Campos et al. (2019) in agricultural contexts). The BE1 states, “If there
are equal conditions represented by surroundings, location, heat, radiation,
substrate, it is valid to draw conclusions about other trees.” He suggests:
“Sensors are not needed at every tree. About 5 – 10% should be monitored.”
Additionally, sensors differ in type and price and vary in measure­
ment precision. According to the botanical experts, so-called “tensiom­
eters” are considered as most advanced sensors and deliver the current
best practice data on irrigation needs. Tensiometers require no site-
specific calibration and particularly capture the soil water potential,
allowing direct conclusions about plant water availability (Thalheimer,
2013). The water potential indicates „the energy a plant needs to expend to
extract water from the soil” (BE1). However, tensiometers represented a
four to five times higher upfront investment during the time of our study
and are more difficult to install and less robust than simple moisture
sensors.
In this notion, our design also suggests installing cost-efficient moisture
sensors, which provide data on the volumetric water content. These mea­
surements do not allow for direct conclusions about a tree’s water
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Journal of Cleaner Production 315 (2021) 128048
availability and state as they are dependent on environmental factors such
as the substrate type. However, as there exists an established connection
between water potential and moisture (Or et al., 2002), the cheaper sensors
allow approximations of the water potential based on the measured soil
moisture as the basis for irrigation decisions. Note, however, that this
approximation requires further analysis of the measured time series of data
based on the soil water characteristic (Or et al., 2002).
Further, all sensors must correspond to practical requirements: They
need to be robust to external influences such as vandalism and hidden to
prevent potential thefts. Yet, the sensor’s data sending entity needs to be
on the surface to ensure continuous data transmission. Expert interviews
revealed further installation difficulties, such as the manual efforts
required to install the sensors in the soil without harming roots or sensor
measurement units. In this notion, low-energy consuming sensors
should be chosen, characterized by low maintenance efforts (e.g., bat­
tery renewal), which would trigger a repetition of installation efforts.
Such low-energy consuming sensors send data regularly but do not
support bi-directional and real-time communication.
The network and communication architecture needs to ensure reli­
able and persistent data transmission via performant gateways and
servers in the city (DG 1.2). This is particularly challenging in urban
environments as buildings may hinder data transmission. Data from
trees all over the city need potentially be transmitted over long dis­
tances, which demands gateways in proximity to the sensors.
The perceived data should then be collected in an accurate, secure,
and timely manner. Further, the parameters should be enriched with
meta-data like location, sensor ID, time, and information on the tree
(type, age, plant-year, etc.) to allow for comprehensive analyses (DG
1.3).
Finally, the gathered data should be visualized in easily under­
standable formats like graphs within an application. The values on water
potential and moisture should be compared to established thresholds
and indicated with graphical elements and expressive colors. Also, ac­
cess and interaction functions should be provided to relevant stake­
holders with features to select a particular area or street within the city
(DG 1.4). Table 2 summarizes DGs and corresponding expert quotes.
4.3.2. Tracking
The DGs associated with DP2 “tracking” particularly address the IS
interaction with the supply side’s sensor networks, capturing water
supply sources. In our use case, these sources refer to natural precipi­
tation and artificial irrigation.
Since the amount of irrigation required depends on the amount of
water already naturally available for a tree, the IS should capture rele­
vant supply sources. To this end, the IS should provide interfaces to
integrate precipitation data. As an advanced option, the system could
display weather predictions, allowing adaptation of irrigation schedules
and amounts accordingly (DG 2.1).
Further, urban trees are frequently irrigated manually by service
providers using transport vehicles. The system should provide interfaces
or input fields for service providers to document irrigations with each
tree’s date and amount (DG 2.2).
The water supply from both sources should be visualized in the user
interface by integrating it in the graphs displaying the water potential
(DG 2.3). Table 3 summarizes DGs and corresponding expert quotes.
4.3.3. Adapting
The DGs associated with DP3 “adapting” address the interaction of
the IS with the flow networks targeting the ways of water supply. As the
IS aims to contribute to more sustainable and demand-oriented irriga­
tion, the IS needs to enable decision-makers to change the irrigation
amount.
Therefore, the IS should allow decision-makers to receive notifica­
tions about soil conditions, such as warnings if a certain threshold is
exceeded or weekly summaries. A universal understanding is that the
water potential should not exceed 33 cbar. Still, as the IS should support
 H. Gimpel et al. Journal of Cleaner Production 315 (2021) 128048

experts in their irrigation decisions, it should allow customizing notifi­

on-demand […], but it is necessary to consider the use case – for things that change slowly, like soil moisture, hourly data are sufficient. It is
you don’t need to change the battery every two years. There is no bidirectional communication on the downside. Data cannot be requested
• “Costs are important and depend on the maintenance and battery life. Keeping the sensors in the soil for 15 years is a great advantage.” (IE)

• “The sensors can reach gateways in two to 6 km distance in urban areas. In Frankfurt, about 12 gateways are required to cover the whole

• “The sensor sends hourly data making them energy efficient. That’s a big advantage: Outdoors, low energy demand is important, so that

• “For data analysis, it is important to know the sensor’s location. After decoding the data, it is enriched with additional information from
cation rules (DG 3.1).

• “The data is securely encrypted. […] It is not collected in the cloud and not accessible by others. It is provided to customers via secure

• “The data should be displayed in a dashboard to get precise information easy and quick. The data should be collected and displayed in
• “We need appropriate sensors and processes for installing and maintaining them […] and protecting them from vandalism, theft, and
Further, the IS should provide functions for decision-makers to adapt

• “Gateways are receiving data from sensors, which means that data is redundant if there are multiple gateways nearby. This ensures
irrigation amounts based on the displayed information on measured soil

• “The sensors should be placed close to the roots. […] You need to be careful not to harm roots when installing sensors.” (BE1)
• “The sensors should be installed at reference trees […] to indicate parameters of similar trees in similar surroundings.” (IE) conditions to better meet the trees’ water demands (DG 3.2).
The adapted amounts and irrigation assignments should then be

• “A traffic light system is useful: Green until 25 cbar, then yellow and red if the threshold of 33 cbar is surpassed.” (SCR)
• “Maintaining the network and sensors is important, to keep them updated regarding firmware and data security.” (IE)
communicated to the service providers responsible for irrigation. Hence,
the IS should incorporate export functions or communication features

• “Gateways transmit data to servers, where it is gathered, redundancies are removed and then it is stored.” (IE)
(DG 3.3). Lastly, the IS should provide interfaces enabling the interac­
tion with other systems, such as automated planning and documentation
software from service providers (DG 3.4). Table 4 summarizes DGs and
corresponding expert quotes.

• „A user-friendly interface is important – to assess current values and thresholds at a glance.” (BE1)
damage. This is important for the installation processes and the scalability of the solution.” (IE)

5. Instantiation of the design knowledge in a case study

reliability when the signal is blocked by a truck or weather conditions, for example.” (IE)

We instantiate the proposed design knowledge to assess practical

viability and value. In this notion, we demonstrate a case study in
Frankfurt am Main, where a prototype was instantiated. A case study is
considered a typical naturalistic evaluation method exploring the per­
formance of a solution technology in its real environment and improves
the quality of the knowledge outcomes concerning the artifact’s effec­
tiveness in actual use (Venable et al., 2016). In the following, we provide
details on the case study and the realization of the DGs and DPs before
other databases, like location, sensor ID or tree ID.” (IE)

continuing to the evaluation. Evaluation is a core component of DSR

• “Displaying daily averages would be practical.” (SCR)

endeavors (Hevner et al., 2004).

a great use case for this network technology.” (IE)

5.1. Description of the case study

We chose a pilot area in Frankfurt am Main to implement the pro­

totypical instantiation in collaboration with local stakeholders. Frank­
furt is a particularly well-suited location for the demonstrator setup for
diagrams over time.” (IE)

two main reasons: First, global rising temperatures are a particular

challenge for the city of Frankfurt, being one of the warmest cities in
Germany (Wilks, 2020) with an increasing need for importing scarce
Interview quotes

ground water already (Dick, 2020). Second, Frankfurt is in an ongoing

servers.” (IE)

transition towards becoming a smart city with a corresponding potential

city.” (IE)

for data collection and utilization as well as the necessary technological

infrastructure (Hawlitschek, 2020).
The irrigation of urban trees is organized by the urban green space
planning office and mostly outsourced to external service providers on a
Data collection: Collect accurate and timely data on relevant soil parameters enriched
Transmission: Ensure reliable, secure, and persistent data transmission via performant

Application: Show parameters for selected trees in easily understandable maps and

yearly basis. Thus, current urban irrigation follows a defined process

Perception: Carefully install smart, robust, economical, and low-energy consuming
Monitor soil parameters that allow conclusions to be drawn about a tree’s water

with contracted frequencies, including a specified number of irrigations

with a predetermined water amount. Especially young urban trees (i.e.,
<15 years) are irrigated in 15–20 rounds from April to September with a
fixed amount of 200 L (i.e., 52.83 US gallons) per round. BE1 relates:
„Currently, every 1.5 or 2 weeks, usually 200 L in all 15 to 20 irrigation
rounds from April to September are distributed to each tree. […] The service
with additional information on location, sensor, and time.

provider is free to plan when and where to irrigate […]. Irrigation is most
relevant for young trees particularly prone to heat stress.” Given the overall
number of about 5000 young trees in Frankfurt, this sums up to a yearly
water demand of 20 Million liters (i.e., 5.3 million US gallons).
sensors in the soil on selected reference trees.

According to experts, this contracted lump sum of water “leads to the

over-irrigation of some species” (BE2), and “a lot of water is wasted because
it evaporates, does not reach the tree’s roots, or seeps away and is not kept in
gateways and servers in the city.

the soil” (BE1). But experts also witnessed the death of trees, which may
be due to heat stress and under-irrigation, as “trees are more susceptible to
viruses or diseases if they experience water stress” (BE1).
The irrigation contract is sealed with the lowest bidder. Although the
urban green space planning office provides several sources of process
and rainwater throughout the city, which can be used for irrigation
DGs for monitoring.

services free of charge, the use of drinking water is favored by service

demand

graphs.

providers. This is because it is associated with lower expenditures (e.g.,

driving distances and related emissions, equipment, and personnel to re-
fill, the volatility of availability). The ISP1 explains: „There’s the possi­
Table 2

1.1

1.2

1.3

1.4

bility to use process water from two sources in Frankfurt. But in case you won
DP 1

DG

DG

DG

DG

a contract in a different area, it’s uneconomical as the way back and forth is

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H. Gimpel et al. Journal of Cleaner Production 315 (2021) 128048

Table 3
DGs for tracking.
DP 2 Track the water supply each tree received Interview quotes

DG Integration of precipitation: Provide interfaces for the • “The irrigation required is always dependent on precipitation […] Precipitation should be integrated.”
2.1 integration of precipitation data. (BE1)
• “Other data can be integrated with the timestamp known.” (IE)
DG Integration of irrigation: Provide interfaces or input fields to • “It would be great to record the irrigation service digitally in the system instead of via Email.” (BE)
2.2 document irrigation amount and date. • “We already operate with a cloud-based system […] and document the service in real-time for internal
use.” (ISP1)
DG Visualization: Integrate amounts of water received in the • “Precipitation and irrigation would need to be integrated. Supply of water, if manual or natural, should
2.3 graphs. be visualized in the graph.” (SCR)
• “It would be great to see when an irrigation was conducted to see how many liters were provided to a
tree. Then you could directly see how the values change afterward.” (BE1)
• “It would be great to be able to monitor it in the dashboard what is happening to control the irrigation
service.” (BE1)
• “They would be able to monitor in real-time where the vehicle is, which tree it irrigates and see a
picture.” (ISP1)

Table 4
DGs for adapting.
DP 3 Enable decision-makers to adapt the irrigation amount of each tree Interview quotes

DG Notification: Provide decision features to receive notifications • “Notifications should be sent to the person responsible for the irrigation in the area.” (SCR)
3.1 and allow customization of notification rules. • “Either there is a notification when the threshold is about to be exceeded, or you receive a weekly
report with a summary.” (SCR)
DG Decision: Provide a function to adapt the irrigation. • “The required irrigation is better determinable knowing the water potential.” (BE1)
3.2 • „If experts do not interpret the data, there is no value to it. It is about the interaction of technical
solutions with expert knowledge. This is key to a successful application.” (IE)
DG Communication: Include functions to export data and • “It would be great if the system directly notifies the service provider about the required irrigation
3.3 assignments to irrigation service providers. service.” (BE1)
DG Interaction: Provide features for interacting with other systems. • “A real smart city solution would be the interaction with the route planning system and the
3.4 controlling of valves from service providers.” (SCR)
• “It would be easier if we receive a digital output offered via an interface instead of a simple list we
need to digitize afterward.” (ISP1)

too costly […] It’s easier to use drinking water available from pipes around
every corner.” This results in a supply network largely operating on
drinking water. Further, BE2 already notices that “the water demand for
irrigation is increasing which becomes evident from higher expenses.” We
thus argue that this presents a useful case for the instantiation of our
design knowledge, enabling decision-makers to make better irrigation
decisions to use drinking water more sustainably.
In the following, we describe the instantiation of formulated DPs and
discuss associated process improvements, taking the status quo as a
comparative scenario.
5.1.1. Monitor soil parameters that allow conclusions to be drawn about a
tree’s water demand
Perception: As described above, we installed two types of sensors
from an IoT provider. They are positioned close to the roots to monitor
young urban trees’ soil: First, tensiometers serve in representative areas
as reference points for the water potential. Second, besides these rather
expensive sensor types, we installed soil moisture sensors with inte­
grated temperature measurements. In the case of a homogeneous tree
substrate – as it is the case for most newly planted trees – this facilitates
an indirect measurement of the water potential once the general relation
between water potential and moisture for a given substrate in a specific
temperature range is established (Or et al., 2002). The sensors transmit
measurement data wirelessly and have a battery life of ~12 years. They
were installed inside easily maintainable and protective polypropylene
tubes with sealed end caps to prevent damage from vandalism and
potentially facilitate maintenance, as captured in Fig. 3a and b. An
illustrative photo-documentation of the moisture sensor installation
process is available in the Appendix.
Transmission: We collaborated with an IoT infrastructure expert to
ensure reliable and persistent data transmission via performant gate­
ways and servers in the city. We used a Long Range Wide Area Network
(LoRaWAN), specifically designed to wirelessly connect battery-
operated “things” in a network to the Internet. Literature suggests that

Fig. 3. a and 3b: Sensor and polypropylene tube.

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H. Gimpel et al. Journal of Cleaner Production 315 (2021) 128048

LoRaWAN is an upcoming solution equipped to address several technical
challenges in urban environments (e.g., the need for long-range com­
munications, long battery life of devices, high network capacity, and
cost-effectiveness) (Fraga-Lamas et al., 2020). We carefully tested the
necessary network coverage during the sensor installation phase –
particularly during special events such as fog or large vehicles parking
nearby. Based on the insights, we iteratively improved network
coverage by positioning mobile gateways that were later replaced by
durable solutions. Please note that installing new gateways in a city is a
non-trivial task that should be carefully planned and executed – espe­
cially due to the extremely high efforts in acquiring the necessary lo­
cations for installation (e.g., skyscrapers or industrial buildings with
large smoke pipes). The overall network and transmission architecture,
including respective data security measures, is depicted in Fig. 4.
Data collection: The data is temporarily securely stored based on an
encryption protocol in the sensor unit. We collect hourly data from all
sensors. After removing redundancies, this data source is further
enriched with meta-data (i.e., sensor-ID, timestamp, and location) and
weather data (i.e., moist, temperature) to inform irrigation decisions.
Application: We developed the application for visualization as
depicted in Fig. 51 by following agile development principles, iteratively
collecting feedback on functions and visualization. As a result, we came
up with a user interface that graphically displayed the time series of
trees’ average daily water potential. We visualized the water potential as
a traffic light system based on predefined threshold values. These
graphical elements were integrated into a map-based solution enriched
with information on the tree extracted from the publicly available or­
chard register. We evaluate a water potential as green if it is < 25 cbar,
as yellow if it is < 33 cbar, and as red otherwise.
5.1.2. Track the water supply each tree received
To accurately track the amounts of water each tree received from
precipitation, we technically prepared the relevant integration and
visualization against the water potential:
Integration of precipitation: We prepared an interface to utilize his­
torical precipitation data, which a communal partner currently provides
to ensure adequate local data resolution. Precipitation may also be
captured in real-time via sensors.
Integration of irrigation: We prepared an interface for irrigation ser­
vice providers to directly communicate irrigation information (i.e.,
location, amount of water, and timestamp) to the system, facilitating the
documentation. It might also be feasible in future applications to pro­
vide interfaces to crowdsourcing solutions (e.g., Gießdenkiez2) to keep
track of irrigation events executed by citizens. In case no technical
integration is feasible from the irrigation service providers’ standpoint,
we also included a user interface for manual input, as shown in Fig. 6.
Visualization: We included the information on irrigation and pre­
cipitation events in the water potential visualization, as shown in Fig. 5.
This allows controlling irrigation services automatically, which was
done with some sample checks before. We adapted all design decisions
to decision-makers’ needs and wishes from the urban green space
planning office. Specifically, we adapted the graphical layout to repre­
sentations they were already familiar with.
5.1.3. Enable decision-makers to adapt the irrigation amount of each tree
Notification: In addition to the graphical support for expert decisions,
we implemented customizable notifications accessible to decision-
makers for a specific district. The system facilitates dynamic adjust­
ments of the alarm threshold or turning the function on or off, based on
personal working preferences. In our case study, we prepared Email
notifications for trees that reached a “critical” state in terms of the
measured water potential, as captured in Fig. 7.
Decision: To highlight the benefits of demand-oriented irrigation
compared to the previous lump sum, the IS provides a decision-making
function: Specifically, decision-makers can decide on the irrigation
amount of each tree in their district individually by entering any amount
of water. Also, information on the positive or negative percentual de­
viation from the de facto standard value of 200 L is shown, as Fig. 8
highlights. The positive or negative adjustment is also visualized in the
map by an upward or downward pointing arrow in each traffic light
representation of a tree (see Fig. 5 above).
Communication: As most urban irrigation is outsourced to external
service providers, we proposed an export function for the adapted irri­
gation instructions per district. Consequently, any irrigation service
provider can work with the instructions, independent from the respec­
tive IT technology stack. Yet, the IS should also provide predefined ac­
cess or the direct integration of the service provider’s system to facilitate
collaboration.
Interaction: We stipulated the provision of features and interfaces for
integration with other systems. This includes the interaction with route
planning or water delivery tracking systems and automized controlling
of valves to improve the smartness and automatization of irrigation
processes.
5.2. Quantitative insights
Besides displaying the measured values in the interface, we con­
ducted further analyses to gain first insights into our sensor data. In
total, we analyzed data from 14 sensors installed at six trees in a dedi­
cated pilot area over a time period of two months starting from March
2021 – the starting point of trees’ vegetation period. Note that this time
span only captures a small fraction of the relevant observation period
since droughts and required irrigation are expected in the summer
months. Thus, the preliminary results of our analysis should be inter­
preted with caution. The demonstrator setup includes lead trees that are
equipped with multiple soil moisture sensors at different depths (30, 60,
90 cm) and a tensiometer at one depth (60 cm). The instantiated system
collects data on an hourly basis to capture short-term developments.
Though, for the purpose of visualization over the two-month period, we
averaged the data per day. This is reasonable as the data shows that soil
conditions change slowly and steadily during the observation period.
The data of one exemplary tree is summarized in Fig. 9 and reveals a
parallel progression of moisture at different depths. We see that tension
is less sensitive towards changes in water supply compared to soil
moisture. Establishing a general relation between water potential and
soil moisture for the given substrate will be subject to future analyses
with data collected over a broader time span, including summer months
with a higher variance of tension. The jump in the graphs reflects the
irrigation of the tree conducted by the service provider on April 28th
following the city’s assignment. Considering that the graph shows an
almost optimal water availability with an average water potential of
about 7 cbar (blue line) in this period, we argue that irrigation was not
necessary. 1200 L of water in the pilot area could have been saved
during the first round of irrigation when looking at the data. Extrapo­
lating from the pilot area to all 5000 young trees in Frankfurt am Main,
which are subject to irrigation with a standard irrigation of 200 L, po­
tential water saving add up to 1 million liters (assuming comparable soil

1
Figure as representation for the dashboard functionality and does not
include current data.
2
Gieβdenkiez is a crowdsourcing initiative in the German city Berlin that
encourages citizens to irrigate trees in periods of drought: https://www.giessd
enkiez.de.

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H. Gimpel et al. Journal of Cleaner Production 315 (2021) 128048

Fig. 4. LoRaWAN architecture.

Fig. 5. Visualization in the user interface.

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H. Gimpel et al.
Fig. 6. Tracking of irrigation processes.
Fig. 7. Notification of critical states.
conditions for all trees).3
We further compared soil moisture sensors installed at different trees
(at 60 cm depth). Results are summarized in Fig. 10 and show a parallel
development, even for different trees in the area. However, the graphs
show that the absolute moisture level varies – either with a tree’s
3 uses resources. The prototype can be regarded as efficient, as it does not
We acknowledge that this does not directly account for actual water sav­
ings, since a certain fraction of the water used for irrigation will be retained in
the soil and is thus not entirely wasted. We argue however, that using the same
amount of water at a later point in time would have resulted in a lower loss of
irrigation water by persolation, vaporisation, etc. and might have reduced the
overall number of necessary irrigation rounds per year.
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Journal of Cleaner Production 315 (2021) 128048
Fig. 8. Deciding on irrigation amount for selected tree.
environmental circumstances affecting water availability in the soil or
due to possible measurement errors. For example, the sensor at tree 6
shows at one point in time after watering a soil moisture of almost 60%,
while most other trees report moisture between 20% and 30%. This
difference highlights the complexity of measuring soil conditions and
points towards either an anomaly of the substrate in 60 cm depth at Tree
6 or a measurement error. This observation supports the use of tensi­
ometers, known as the most advanced measurement method capturing
water potential, which is independent of substrate conditions. More­
over, it highlights the need for further and more detailed analysis of
future time series data. Eventually, our first quantitative insights suggest
that current IoT systems alone will not suffice to decide on the irrigation
strategies. Instead, the available data needs to be interpreted with expert
knowledge to support the decision-making process of botanical experts
regarding sustainable irrigation.
6. Evaluation and expansion of the design knowledge
6.1. Evaluation of the design knowledge
We evaluate the prototypically instantiated design knowledge ac­
cording to the well-established evaluation criteria effectiveness, effi­
ciency, and impact on the environment and the artifact’s users, as
proposed by March and Smith (1995).
First, effectiveness refers to the artifact’s contribution to the design
objectives defined at the start of the DSR process. We, therefore, assess
the impact on each objective:
1) The prototype monitors soil parameters based on which trees’ water
demand can be approximated as it captures hourly data on moisture
and water potential via IoT-based sensors.
2) The prototype captures information on the water supply by tracking
artificial irrigation from service providers and natural precipitation.
3) The prototype enables the adaptation of irrigation to foster demand-
oriented irrigation of trees by allowing decision-makers to dynami­
cally decide on the amount of irrigation based on the visualized data
from 1) and 2).
4) The prototype aims at a cost-effective implementation. To this end, it
leverages the scalability of software and data analytics to reduce
investments in hardware. It operates on a calculated relation be­
tween soil moisture and water potential to avoid investments in
costly tensiometers.
Second, efficiency refers to the degree to which the artifact prudently
need manual, time-intensive intervention. By leveraging the capabilities
of IoT-based sensors and the local LoRaWAN, the IS allows monitoring of
soil conditions and integrated analyses capturing the water flows sup­
plied to the trees. The prototype allows monitoring the tree’s conditions
remotely and enables digital interaction of service providers and city
H. Gimpel et al. Journal of Cleaner Production 315 (2021) 128048

Fig. 9. Measured moisture and water potential values for a selected tree.

Fig. 10. Comparison of moisture for different trees at 60 cm depth.

administrations to commission and document irrigation rounds. This
makes manual controls for city administrations superfluous and eases
the planning process for service providers.
Third, the impact on the environment and the artifact’s users eval­
uates whether the effect is positive or negative. We argue that the pro­
totype has a substantial positive impact. It facilitates the irrigation
process for smart city administrations and service providers and posi­
tively impacts society and the environment. Enabling demand-oriented
irrigation for urban trees, young trees’ survival probabilities are
enhanced, promoting their various valuable urban climate functions
while using the resource water efficiently and sustainably.
In sum, the design knowledge is practically viable. It addresses the
study’s meta requirement to support city administrations to make
demand-oriented decisions on urban trees’ irrigation.
6.2. Expansion of the design knowledge
While the evaluation confirms that the instantiated design knowl­
edge contributes to reaching the meta requirement, we recognized
further development options as suggested in the literature on smart
irrigation in agriculture (e.g., Millán et al., 2019; Nikolidakis et al.,
2015) and within interviews. Collating insights from these sources, we
suggest three maturity stages of a smart and sustainable irrigation sys­
tem within a smart city, each having different implications for practical
applications, as summarized in Table 5.
These maturity stages correspond to the four capabilities smart
connected products are typically grouped into: Monitoring, control,
optimization, and autonomy (Porter and Heppelmann, 2014).
Stage I comprises the first two capability areas. “Monitoring” de­
scribes the comprehensive monitoring of conditions, environments, and
operations and enables alerts on changes. “Control” describes remote
controlling through commands or algorithms responding to changes in

Table 5
Overview of maturity stages.
Stage 0: Stage I: Stage II: Stage III:
No information Monitoring and adaptation Predictive optimization Automation

Description No smart irrigation Irrigation system allows monitoring of soil Irrigation system makes recommendations based Irrigation system controls the
system in place. parameters and enables experts to adapt on predicted water potential from various data automated allocation and
the amount of irrigation according to sources (e.g., historic water potential values and distribution of water via flow
established thresholds. predicted weather) networks.
Application Trees are irrigated with a No changes regarding the irrigation Adaptation of processes: Automatization of processes:
lump amount of 200 process:
liters ~ every two weeks. Adapt the irrigation amount for each tree Adapt scheduling and route planning of service Automated control of flow
for given irrigation assignments. providers. networks without manual
intervention.

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H. Gimpel et al.
the conditions or environment. We consider the proposed design
knowledge and the corresponding instantiated system as a stage I
implementation as it allows monitoring soil and environmental condi­
tions and includes notifications on critical observations. Additionally, it
allows adapting and controlling irrigation assignments. Stage I already
presents a significant improvement for smart and sustainable irrigation
compared to the status quo determining irrigation according to fixed
amounts without considering any information. BE2 concludes:
“A tree will never tell us the exact water demand, not even with
sensors or vitality testing or any other way because it is a complex
system. We can only work with approximations […], but there is no
way to calculate the exact demand. […] The expectation of devel­
oping an ideal system and identifying the precise irrigation amount is
unrealistic; that is utopian. It would be great to improve and quantify
current irrigation decisions of 200 L based on the provision of
additional data. Which alterations are made? Can we optimize the
baseline amount of 200 L based on sensor data? That would be
interesting as we gain knowledge with every additional
information.”
This does not imply changes regarding the scheduling and routing
processes as only the irrigation amount is adapted in a demand-oriented
way.
Stage II comprises the third capability, “optimization” of an opera­
tion enabled by monitoring and control to enhance efficiency and allow
predictive diagnostics. Smart city administrations wish for such mature
solutions in the longer run incorporating predictive recommendations,
as BE1 explains:
„It would be valuable to predict how the values develop and make
recommendations to irrigate in three, four, or five days.” „One could
track the development [of the water potential] and calculate with an
algorithm what will happen in the next few days under consideration
of climate and weather conditions.”
Consequently, this would imply alterations regarding irrigation
processes. Instead of fixed schedules, routes, and water amounts, more
flexibility would be required. This imposes several conditions on the IS.
It needs to provide an integrated solution with interfaces for service
providers to interact with the system dynamically to plan irrigation
rounds flexibly using optimization algorithms. ISP1 suggests:
“Suppose a sensor reports that it needs water, and there’s another
sensor in this area that will need water in two days. I would also
irrigate there so that I will not need to go there again in two days.
[…] Basically, one needs to collect data and retrieve information
about every three days on trees requiring water and make small
‘planning bubbles.’ […] We already have the meta-data, and every
tree has an ID […]. If every tree reported data about the water de­
mand, we could easily plan a tour based on this. The degree of
automatization to plan and optimize a tour is already high. We use
algorithms to solve a traveling salesman problem. […] The only
thing missing is the information which tree needs water, the IoT
connectivity.”
Further, stage III comprises the fourth capability, “autonomy,” which
combines the previous areas to allow autonomous operations. Stage III
refers to an autonomous irrigation system that directly interacts with
flow networks. The SCR expects:
„A smart city solution would include valves at irrigation vehicles con­
nected to LoRaWAN, that get notifications to irrigate x liters at tree y and
then being automatically opened and closed before going to the next tree.”
The automated allocation of water is another step towards a fully
automated irrigation system. Such a system would be characterized by
automatically controlling the allocation and distribution of water via
flow networks in an end-to-end process. Irrigation decisions and
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Journal of Cleaner Production 315 (2021) 128048
executions are no longer made by city administrations but by the IS
without any manual intervention. This system could include a fully
automated system of pipes and valves in the long run. BE2 sees an
advantage concerning water use efficiency:
“An automated irrigation system could irrigate at suitable times of
the day as we currently irrigate during the day where the sun is
standing high, and large parts of the water just evaporate.”
However, since this requires physical facilities like pipes and valves,
investments to set up the infrastructure for trees might not be worth­
while for cities in the short term, compared to other use cases like
agricultural fields.
7. Discussion
This paper presents design knowledge for a smart and sustainable
irrigation system for urban trees. In the DSR approach, we first devel­
oped an overarching framework theoretically informing the design and
design objectives defining technical affordances. Second, we identified
three DPs and eleven more detailed DGs guiding such an irrigation
system’s practical development. Finally, we evaluated the design
knowledge in terms of viability and added value by a prototypical
instantiation in Frankfurt am Main. Applicability and expansions of this
instantiation were discussed.
7.1. Theoretical contribution
This paper has three major implications for research: First, our
design knowledge is informed by the well-established energy infor­
matics framework of Watson et al. (2010) and its extension to the water
context. While the energy informatics framework is well applicable to
sensitized technical objects such as dishwashers or washing machines,
where an integrated IS is already common practice to save water, the
frugal use of water in natural ecosystems is not yet well understood, as
recently remarked by Gimpel et al. (2020). Thus, we apply the mingled
frameworks to our concrete use case and outline necessary refinements.
This yields our specific “irrigation informatics framework,” based on
which we suggest the following boundary conditions of applying it to the
irrigation of urban trees.
Starting with the supply side, sensor networks provide data on the
status of an item or environmental condition that can be used to
determine the optimum use of a flow network (Watson et al., 2010). In
our use case, different water supply sources need to be captured, i.e.,
artificially distributed irrigation and naturally available water like rain.
Capturing naturally available water then allows to adapt the artificial
supply and optimize water use within the flow networks. Second, flow
networks are described as a set of connected transport components
supporting the movement of discrete objects or continuous matter, such
as water (Watson et al., 2010). But, regarding irrigation, water cannot be
regarded as purely continuous since it is distributed via transport ve­
hicles. Further, flow networks would also include natural ways of
transportation such as through air or surface.
On the demand side, the energy informatics framework contains
sensitized objects that can sense and report data about their consump­
tion patterns (Watson et al., 2010). As trees do naturally not have this
capability, the demand side needs to incorporate sensor networks to, for
example, monitor soil conditions to indicate water demand. Also,
demand-side flexibility is low as trees’ water consumption depends on
various factors within the natural ecosystems. These boundaries of the
transferability of the energy informatics framework to the use case of
irrigation are rooted in the tension field between digital and natural
ecosystems. Future research may build on this discussion and transfer
the refined framework to other use cases of digital ecosystems embedded
in natural ecosystems, such as forests or seas (Watson et al., 2010). As
trees do not naturally have this capability, the demand side needs to
H. Gimpel et al.
incorporate sensor networks to monitor soil conditions to indicate water
demand. Also, demand-side flexibility is low as trees’ water consump­
tion depends on various factors within the natural ecosystems. These
boundaries of the transferability of the energy informatics framework to
the use case of irrigation are rooted in the tension field between digital
and natural ecosystems. Future research may build on this discussion
and transfer the refined framework to other use cases of digital eco­
systems embedded in natural ecosystems, such as forests or seas.
Second, we transfer knowledge on smart irrigation systems to the
novel context of urban trees. With smart irrigation systems being
prominent in agricultural contexts so far, this paper’s contribution can
be regarded as “exaptation” in design science research (Gregor and
Hevner, 2013). Exaptation describes the adaptation of known and
established solutions to a novel problem. Thereby we identify that
existing solutions in agricultural contexts do not adequately meet the
requirements of complex processes and various involved stakeholders to
irrigate urban trees. Therefore, monitoring networks need to be
expanded to track and manage manual irrigation. Developing the design
knowledge, we address the differences of applying a smart irrigation
system in the use case of urban trees instead of agricultural fields and
provide well-suited design knowledge.
Third, the theory-inspired DPs and DGs are considered a level 2
contribution as nascent design theory (Gregor and Hevner, 2013). The
following prototypical instantiation is considered a level 1 contribution
(Gregor and Hevner, 2013). DSR scholars suggest that contributions on
these levels are significant if new to the world and/or bringing major
practical impact to a knowledge area (Gregor and Hevner, 2013). In this
vein, we developed a real-world prototypical instantiation of our design
knowledge and aimed to stimulate further smart irrigation instantiations
by proposing different maturity levels of our design knowledge. Future
research may develop a level 3 design theory by maturing and gener­
alizing the prescriptive knowledge captured in DPs and DGs.
7.2. Practical implications
The proposed design knowledge supports smart cities that intend to
develop a smart irrigation system, and once instantiated, the system serves
as a support for irrigation decisions. Practical implications are threefold:
First, we propose design knowledge that guides practical instantiations. To
this end, the DPs and DGs were informed by practitioners’ insights and
expectations, including city administration representatives, IoT specialists,
and botanists who are working with smart irrigation systems. Second, we
instantiated the proposed DPs and DGs in Frankfurt am Main and outline
the implementation process. Thereby, we provide practical guidance on the
development and implementation based on a real-world case study. We
aim to stimulate further instantiations of the design knowledge to foster
smart and sustainable irrigation in other cities. Thereby we argue that the
proposed design knowledge can be transferred to other cities since the DPs
and DGs were formulated in a generalizable way and are based on a
theoretical framework, the energy informatics framework. However, we
recognize that each instantiation demands potential refinements based on
the individual conditions and requirements of each city. Our proposed
knowledge could also be extended to include different types of urban green
spaces such as parks or flower beds. Third, we suggest three maturity levels
of a smart irrigation system for urban trees. This may serve as a reference to
develop and improve irrigation systems towards smarter and more sus­
tainable irrigation.
7.3. Limitations
This paper comes with several limitations: First, some limitations
regarding the approach exist. Even though the design knowledge was
informed by the energy informatics framework, the formulation of the
DPs and DGs was based on expert interviews, and their opinions
regarding the set-up of a system for the use case in Frankfurt am Main.
Hence, the design knowledge serves as guidance for implementation yet
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Journal of Cleaner Production 315 (2021) 128048
needs to be tailored to each individual city considering the technical
conditions such as network technologies and existing irrigation systems.
Also, the system was instantiated in a pilot area in Frankfurt am Main.
Additional instantiations and evaluations are required to ensure gener­
alizability and especially process integration, operations, and mainte­
nance on a large scale. In particular, we suggest measures such as
manual recalibration measurements for the installed sensor network in
order to minimize measurement errors and follow-up analyses on the
functional relation of soil water potential and soil water content.
Furthermore, a dedicated pilot for an end-to-end irrigation process
should be set up. Second, some limitations regarding the design
knowledge need to be noted. The development and empirical testing of a
fully instantiated system, which covers different trees and districts, are
yet to emerge. However, we prototypically showed the practical
viability of the design knowledge. Another limitation is that cities’
practical instantiations are coupled to change management, incorpo­
rating running processes’ alteration. This may be fraught with several
difficulties indicated in this paper, such as governance issues, reluctance
to offer interfaces, and financial investments in IoT technologies or
infrastructure. As this paper aimed at implementing a viable prototype
quickly, this long-term perspective is left for further research.
8. Conclusion and future research
Water scarcity threatens urban trees – the “green lung” of today’s
cities providing city dwellers with oxygen. Current irrigation efforts are
typically neither ecologically, socially, nor economically sustainable. In
this notion, we propose how to design a smart and sustainable irrigation
system for urban trees. The system design serves for a demand-oriented
and resource-efficient irrigation that protects urban trees without un­
necessarily exacerbating water scarcity issues. The design knowledge is
prototypically instantiated and evaluated in a case study in Frankfurt am
Main. 18 sensors were installed at eight trees in a selected pilot area.
Data was collected over a period of three months, from March to May
2021 and revealed first insight into the soil moisture and water potential
time series in the pilot area, which are subject to further analyses. Our
results highlight the prototype’s practical viability and usefulness in
terms of water savings and translate into a maturity model for urban
smart and sustainable irrigation systems.
Future research should focus on several very important and chal­
lenging facets of designing smart, sustainable irrigation systems, inter
alia including botanical research, data science, and user-centered
research approaches: First, demand-oriented irrigation of urban trees
per se is a complex and scarcely addressed issue in the extant literature.
Botanical research and interdisciplinary efforts should contribute to a
better understanding of the actual water demand of urban trees based on
various sensors as well as the consequences of different irrigation stra­
tegies such as deficit irrigation. On the basis of smart irrigation systems
designs – as proposed within the scope of this study – new means of
capturing large amounts of relevant data can be implemented that will
facilitate new insights. Second, we call for future research efforts by
data-scientist from various disciplines, which go well beyond the mere
monitoring of time series data and descriptive statistics. New ap­
proaches of data science and machine learning techniques, in particular,
will be necessary to facilitate predictive optimizations of irrigation
strategies or even fully automated and autonomous irrigation based on
large amounts of sensor data. For example, the recombination of various
demand-related data sources and the application of deep learning
techniques, as suggested by Šolić et al. (2020), could be applied for more
accurate estimates of relevant parameters and situational demand.
Third, the iterative nature of design science suggests further refinements
of design principles and decisions as well as additional usability and
acceptance studies. User-centered research will be needed to ensure the
acceptance of smart irrigation systems, especially against the backdrop
of the low digital readiness and grown structures in some relevant areas
of emerging smart cities (Hawlitschek, 2020). We thus call for
H. Gimpel et al.
user-centered interdisciplinary and IS research efforts in the tension
field of smart irrigation processes for irrigation service providers as well
as crowdsourced irrigation initiatives. In particular, the prospective
collaborative work of stage 4 irrigation systems with human experts will
raise a plethora of research questions regarding human agency and the
collaboration with (semi-)autonomous systems but also regarding
complex optimization problems for service delivery.
With this paper, we pave the way for smart city initiatives and
interdisciplinary research efforts that tackle the important challenge of
designing and introducing smart and sustainable irrigation systems. The
proposed irrigation system promotes smart and sustainable irrigation of
urban trees leading to the more thoughtful use of the scarce resource
water and improves the urban climate by ensuring the survival of urban
trees. With more mature solutions, even more environmental benefits
are likely such as the reduction of emissions from transport vehicles and
the additional saving of freshwater resources by incorporating the use of
process or wastewater for irrigation purposes. Cleaner, more efficient,
and more sustainable approaches to irrigation will be an important
cornerstone for the successful handling of challenges resulting from
increasing water scarcity in many urban areas. We thus encourage both
academics and practitioners to contribute to the successful design of
smart irrigation systems for smart cities.
Appendix. Photo documentation of the moisture sensor installation process
Fig. A1. Tools for the installation of moisture sensors.
Fig. A2. 80 cm distance to the tree for installation.
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Journal of Cleaner Production 315 (2021) 128048
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Henner Gimpel: Conceptualization, Methodology, Validation, Su­
pervision. Valerie Graf-Drasch: Conceptualization, Methodology,
Validation, Investigation, Writing. Florian Hawlitschek: Conceptuali­
zation, Validation, Investigation, Writing, Project administration, Data
curation, Resources. Kathrin Neumeier: Conceptualization, Method­
ology, Investigation, Writing, Project administration, Formal analysis,
Data curation, Visualization, Project administration.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank the Palmengarten and the Grünflächenamt of
the City of Frankfurt am Main as well as the IoT Concepts GmbH & Co
KG and the clickbar. GmbH for their support in realizing this study.
Especially, we acknowledge the collaboration with the FES group.
Financial support of FES Frankfurter Entsorgungs-und Service GmbH for
measurement infrastructure is gratefully acknowledged.
H. Gimpel et al. Journal of Cleaner Production 315 (2021) 128048

Fig. A3. Preparation of the drilling area.

Fig. A4. Manual drilling (for pilot installation only).

Fig. A5. Positioning of the polypropylene tube for depth check.

16
H. Gimpel et al. Journal of Cleaner Production 315 (2021) 128048

Fig. A6. Fixation of the sensor head.

Fig. A7. Positioning of the sensor..

Fig. A8. Installed sensor unit.

17
H. Gimpel et al. Journal of Cleaner Production 315 (2021) 128048

Fig. A9. Filling the tube with soil.

Fig. A10. Positioning of the wire, transmitter and antenna (will be covered by the polypropylene tube in an updated hardware-setup)..

Fig. A11. Sealed tube.

18
H. Gimpel et al. Journal of Cleaner Production 315 (2021) 128048

Fig. A12. Visible parts of the antenna after covering with soil and stones (results in low probability of vandalism).

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