Roots for the City, for tomorrow

  • Sports field.

    Sports field.

A simple, practical, and economic service to reduce
your water consumption to the strict minimum necessary for the lawn.

The necessary water, when necessary


A turnkey service: you receive your watering recommendations weekly in the unit of your choice: watering time, as percentage of a reference program or millimeter.

In direct contact with the roots: by measuring the water tension of the soil, our stations directly and continuously evaluate the water comfort of the lawn.

Foster a deep root anchoring


For a more resistant lawn: adapted water supply foster a deep anchoring for greater resistance to tearing off and water stress.

Indicators as control tools: you have informations day after day on the hydric comfort of the lawn and the root development in the soil.

Easy to use and functional guarantee


A simple and practical set up: our sensors are buried under the playgrounds. They do not require any wires, subscriptions or intervention from our customers.

The Urbasense team works with you: to ensure that maintenance, any repairs to our stations and all sensor communication costs are included in our packages.

Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment. Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one's definition of your life; define yourself. Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first. If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude. Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.


Julien SENECHAL

Avant de faire appel à Urbasense, nous arrosions un peu à l’aveugle, de manière non différenciée entre les espèces, sans maîtriser vraiment les quantités apportées. Nous avions une tournée d’arrosage manuelle, avec un passage à la tonne environ toutes les deux semaines. D’une manière globale, nous avions l’impression de trop arroser. Dans la mesure où les signes sont les mêmes lorsque les plantes reçoivent trop d’eau ou en manquent, nous étions en permanence dans l’incertitude

Lorsque j’ai entendu parler pour la première fois de tensiométrie, en 2013, j’ai été tout de suite intéressé. Cette technologie semblait en effet permettre non seulement de diminuer considérablement les volumes d’eau utilisés, mais aussi d’optimiser la reprise des végétaux. Malheureusement à l’époque, notre direction générale des services n’a pas été convaincue par l’outil. Ce n’est qu’en 2016 que les choses ont commencé à bouger. Et pour cause, nous envisagions de mener beaucoup de projets neufs sur la ville, incluant la plantation de gros sujets. Par ailleurs, dans la mesure où la ville d’inscrit depuis 4 ans dans une dynamique d’économie d’eau, l’aspect financier était évidemment important. C’est pourquoi nous avons décidé de faire appel à Urbasense. Notre objectif : éviter les pertes de jeunes sujets et donc d’argent et de temps. Et nous n’avons pas été déçus.

Le suivi tensiométrique nous a permis de diminuer très clairement les programmations d’arrosage : d’un arrosage programmé toutes les deux semaines, nous sommes passés à un arrosage avec la juste quantité d’eau si préconisation. Concernant l’arrosage à la tonne, même si les choses sont un peu plus compliquées, nous observons tout de même un espacement des passages et un arrosage par essence là où nous arrosions tout uniformément. Nous sommes donc convaincus que plus nous aurons de sites équipés, plus nous pourrons affiner nos arrosages à la tonne."

Julien SENECHAL Technicien en charge du suivi arboré,
Ville de Neuilly-sur-Seine.

Understand the service : more details

I have already a rain gauge or a weather station, is it usefull to add more?

The installations controlled by a rain gauge allow to avoid watering when it rains. This function is especially useful to avoid the reactions of the general public when watering under precipitation. Rainfall alone does not determine the water requirement of plants.

The potential evapotranspiration (from weather stations) is a local (or regional) data for an average soil, for an average crop. It allows a theoretical adjustment of the amount of water used for irrigation. It never takes into account the water stock in the soil or the state of root development.

The tensiometric technology used by Urbasense is coupled with meteorological data processing. It makes possible to provide the actual water requirement of the plantations, taking into account both weather conditions and the soil's water stock.

How do I know if this service is appropriate for my places?

The only key point : once a week, an agent must be available to reschedule the watering programmer (individual or centralized).
A technical agent (sports ground manager, for example) is also a real asset for the added value of the service.

I don't have an integrated watering system, is this service useful?

Yes, some collectivities are still forced to sprinkle places with manually installed devices. Two elements complete the water saving:
  • An assessment of the homogeneity of water supply, thanks to our two measuring points
  • A reduction in the time spent on watering

What is your feedback on the savings made?

For example, in 2016, in the Ile de France area, the theoretical need for a large playground was around 2,800 m³ (filtering field of honour).
The usual practices observed (3 times 20 min per sector each week) led to consumption of nearly 6,000 m³.

Generally, the water’s costs are close to tax. Savings for 2016 are 3,200m3 of water or approximatively 13,000 € HT/m3.

Warning : these volumes vary each year, depending on weather conditions. Only one thing is certain: you will only bring the water that is strictly necessary at the right time.

Understand the material : some details

What is the autonomy of your sensors?

It increases every months. Today it is between 18 to 24 months. In concrete terms, we carry out an annual maintenance that includes a change of batteries.

How your sensors communicate?

Several telecommunication technologies are used depending of the availibility of networks at each place : GSM, SigFox, LoRA. Wifi and bluetooth are not use today for practical and energy reasons.

Are your sensors guaranteed?

Yes. Our sensors are guarenteed for the contract duration when there are rented (global functioning guarantee). They are guaranteed two years when they are sold.

What is your perspective on the reliability of your sensors?

The first sensors were deployed at the end of 2014 and still operational on the ground. More broadly speaking, we assemble and test our stations and we keep control on the assembly line, it’s a critical point for sensors reliability.

URBASENSE SARL au capital social de 30 000 €  -  25 rue du Maréchal Foch 78000 VERSAILLES  -  contact@urbasense.fr  -  Siret N° : 810 940 601 00034

Contacter notre équipe commerciale au

01 78 14 07 00