SOUTHWEST FLORIDA - Satellite technology helps us predict weather, listen to the radio in the car, and navigate around town. It's also helping one community in Southwest Florida save water.

"We found on the average we've used 50% less water over the about 13 months."

Dennis Cafaro with the Bonita Bay Group says the Mediterra Community in Naples did this by using satellites to control its sprinkler systems.

"What this does is takes the human element, the guess factor out of it. It's exactly what the plant and the grass needs to stay green."

Cafaro says it measures a variety of different weather conditions in order to conserve water and keep the yard green. This includes rainfall, humidity, sunshine, and wind. All the information goes into a little box installed on the side of the home.

"It either waters the lawn for a short period of time or a long period of time, but it's only precisely what it needs."

This started as a pilot program more than a year ago. In that time the community has saved two million gallons of water, that's enough water to fill three Olympic sized pools.

Phil Flood with South Florida Water Management says, "You look at the water savings they're seeing and I just can't wait until we start seeing this technology utilized in other communities."

Because of the savings, Cafaro says Bonita Bay received a grant to expand the satellite technology to include more than a hundred homes.

While satellite sprinkler technology is new to Southwest Florida, it's not new in other parts of the country. People in Arizona and California started using this technology in response to a drought back in 2000.