Addressing Water Restrictions with Baseline Irrigation
If you’re a Baseline customer heading into a restricted water season, this page is for you. Your Baseline system — including soil moisture sensors, BaseManager remote management, and multi-water-source prioritization — already has what you need to protect landscapes, stay within agency allocations, and keep every gallon working its hardest. This guide walks through exactly how to use those tools: what to configure, which sensor thresholds to verify, which reports to pull, and where to find the knowledgebase articles that go deeper.
Whether your agency has tightened day-of-week rules, cut your water allocation, or added tiered rates, Baseline’s precision approach gives you the control to respond. Start with the restriction-season checklist below, or jump to the specific capability you want to optimize.
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Your Water Restriction-Season Checklist
- Confirm your water agency’s current restrictions
Note any changes to allowable watering days, water windows, allocations, or tiered rate thresholds. This is the starting point for every other configuration decision. - Update approved water windows in BaseManager
Push agency-approved day-of-week and time-of-day settings across your entire Baseline portfolio remotely. No site visits required. - Verify soil moisture sensor thresholds
Review your high and low threshold settings to make sure they reflect current landscape conditions and any drought-stress tolerances. During restricted seasons, slightly lower low-thresholds may be appropriate for zones that can tolerate mild stress. - Configure Water Budgets and Rationing
Set or refresh site-specific water budgets that match agency mandates. Enable rationing and priority settings so programs stay within approved allocations automatically. - Review water source priorities
If your site uses multiple water sources (recycled, rainwater, stormwater, potable), confirm priority order and automatic switching is enabled. This is how Baseline minimizes potable water use during restriction season. - Use the BaseManager site map to prioritize critical zones
Identify and label mature trees, specimen plantings, featured entries, and other high-value zones. Use Program Priorities (up to 99 programs supported) to ensure these zones stay irrigated while lower-priority areas are dialed back. - Confirm alert recipients are current
Make sure alerts for out-of-window activation, leaks, flow anomalies, and source switches reach people who can act on them immediately. - Document your configuration
Pull current audit logs from BaseManager and save them. This baseline becomes your proof of compliance if your agency or clients ask for documentation later your water agency’s current drought program
Need help with any of these? The Customer Support team can walk through your sites together — reach out anytime.
Resources
Navigate the Drought with Confidence: 8 Ways Baseline Delivers
Everything you need to configure, optimize, and document during restriction season.
Creating Sustainable and Resilient Sites Ebook
A broader site resilience framework for protecting properties from drought and climate-driven issues.
Knowledgebase
WeatherTRAK Help Center
Step-by-step articles on scheduling, compliance, alerts, budgets, reports, and more. Your first stop for how-to.
Features to Know and Optimize During Water Restrictions
Your Baseline system likely has more restriction-ready capability than you’re currently using. Here’s a walk-through of the features that matter most — what they do, when to reach for them, and where to learn more.
Soil Moisture-Based Scheduling
The core of how your Baseline system decides when and how much to water.
Irrigate based on what the root zone actually needs
Baseline soil moisture sensors measure volumetric water content directly in the root zone, so irrigation is triggered only when the landscape actually needs water — and stops when the target moisture level is reached. High and low threshold settings prevent both overwatering and underwatering, regardless of soil type, microclimate variation, or changing weather patterns. During restricted seasons, soil moisture sensing is the most efficient way to deliver exactly the water plants need without applying a single gallon more.
Learn more: Overview of Soil Moisture Levels
BaseManager Remote Management
Cloud-based control and visibility for multi-site Baseline portfolios.
Manage every Baseline site from anywhere
BaseManager lets you remotely monitor and manage Baseline controllers across an entire portfolio. When restrictions change, programming updates can be pushed to all controllers without a site visit. The intuitive site map visually organizes every zone, valve, and sensor — making it easy to identify, prioritize, and protect critical areas. With support for up to 99 programs, restriction response plans can be enabled remotely from the office.
Learn more: BaseManager Account Details
Multi-Water-Source Management
A Baseline capability that becomes mission-critical when potable water is restricted.
Prioritize recycled, rainwater, and potable sources automatically
Baseline is engineered to manage multiple water sources simultaneously — recycled water, captured rainwater, stormwater, greywater, and potable — and prioritize among them based on site policy and availability. When a budget on one source is met, the system automatically switches to an alternative to avoid exceeding allocations or triggering tiered rates. During restricted seasons, this multi-source intelligence is what allows high-value landscapes to stay irrigated while minimizing potable water use.
Learn more: Multi-source water budgeting
Water Budgeting & Rationing
Granular water accounting for sites under tight agency allocations.
Set budgets, enforce rationing, and prioritize what matters
BaseManager’s Water Budgets, Rationing, and Priority features let water managers configure site-specific allocations that align with water agency mandates. Programs can be configured to stay within approved water windows, and Alerts notify the team immediately if any system activates outside of approved times — providing a critical compliance safety net. Flow monitoring at the control point level gives real-time visibility into every source, every site, every day.
Learn more: Setting the Monthly Water Budget
Program Priorities
The tool for deciding which zones get water when water is scarce.
Protect specimen plantings, trees, and featured zones first
With up to 99 programs per controller, Baseline allows you to build detailed priority structures — ensuring that mature trees, specimen plantings, featured entries, and other high-value landscape areas receive irrigation before lower-priority zones. During restriction season, priority settings can be enabled remotely from BaseManager, letting teams enforce response plans across an entire portfolio in minutes.
Learn more: Program Priorities
Remote Alerts & Safety Net
Early warning for every system, every site.
Catch compliance issues and leaks before they become problems
BaseManager’s alert system notifies landscape teams when a system activates outside approved water windows, when a flow anomaly suggests a leak or break, or when any condition falls outside safe operating parameters. During drought — when every violation matters and every wasted gallon counts — real-time alerts let teams respond within hours, from anywhere.
Learn more: Baseline Messages and Alerts
Baseline Water Restriction FAQs
Baseline soil moisture sensors measure volumetric water content directly in the root zone and trigger irrigation only when the landscape actually needs water. During restricted seasons, this means zero wasted gallons — water is applied based on actual plant need, not a fixed schedule. High and low thresholds prevent overwatering and underwatering, protecting plant health under the tightest restrictions. Soil moisture-based irrigation is EPA WaterSense-approved and is recognized as one of the most water-efficient smart control methods available.
BaseManager is Baseline’s cloud-based remote management platform. It allows landscape teams to update programming and scheduling across all Baseline controllers from anywhere — eliminating the need for site visits when restrictions change. BaseManager enforces approved water windows, tracks water source budgets, sends alerts if a system activates outside approved times, and maintains an audit log of every programming change. It’s the core compliance and response tool for restriction-season Baseline operations.
Yes. Multi-water-source management is built into the Baseline platform. Controllers can manage multiple water sources simultaneously — recycled, captured rainwater, stormwater, greywater, and potable — with configurable priority and budget rules. When a budget on one source is met, the system automatically switches to an alternative. During restriction season, this is how Baseline customers stretch available non-potable sources and minimize potable use without compromising landscape health.
Baseline controllers support up to 99 programs, which lets you build detailed priority structures across a site. Mature trees, specimen plantings, and high-value landscape areas can be assigned high-priority programs that continue running under tight restrictions, while lower-priority zones (such as turf in non-featured areas) are reduced or paused. BaseManager’s site maps help visually identify and label critical zones, and priority settings can be enabled remotely from the office.
Start by reviewing your current high and low threshold settings in BaseManager. During drought or tight restrictions, consider lowering your low threshold slightly for zones that can tolerate mild plant stress — this reduces irrigation frequency without risking plant health. Keep thresholds conservative for high-value zones (mature trees, specimen plantings) that shouldn’t experience stress. The knowledgebase Overview of Soil Moisture Levels article walks through threshold configuration in detail, and customer support can help you tune settings for your specific soil types and microclimates.
Make the Most of Your Baseline This Water Restriction Season
You’ve invested in a precision irrigation platform built for exactly this — a season where every gallon counts, every restriction matters, and every configuration decision shapes landscape health. Use the checklist, lean on the knowledgebase, and reach out to customer support or your local distributor whenever you need a hand. We’re here to help you get the most out of the Baseline system you already have.