Flexible Irrigation Systems: Concept, Design, and Application

This paper presents the need, value, and concept of flexible irrigation water supply systems that can deliver water with flexibility in frequency, rate, and duration under the control of the farmer at the point of application using a limited rate arranged-demand or other schedule. It introduces the needed terminology including “congestion”—how much reserve time and capacity is required to assure water delivery at the frequency and rate desired. An illustrative design procedure for the necessary pipeline and reservoir capacities is illustrated. The techniques discussed emphasize the conversion of the economical steady supply canal flows to flexible on-farm usage through the use of service area reservoirs located between the secondary and tertiary systems, and of semiclosed pipelines and/or level-top canals as automated distribution systems which facilitates the farmers’ need for daytime only variable on-farm deliveries to permit optimization of on-farm water management. This improved management is the ultimate source of increased food production after improved crop, land, and water resources have reached their maximum. The coordinated use of return flow systems is described.     

Benefits of Flexible Irrigation Water Supply

This paper develops a general introduction into the concepts of a flexible irrigation water supply in rate, frequency, and duration together with the benefits to the farmer for doing so. A flexible water supply allows the farmer the opportunity to choose an on-farm irrigation practice that best meets the needs of the desired crop, the cost and availability of labor, and other local economic or social situations. As water quality issues are more closely tied to the issues of water quantity, water use efficiency must improve. A flexible irrigation water supply can lead to improved efficiencies. Non-point-source pollution and in-stream flows also become factors in other social issues such as the care of threatened and endangered species. Flexible supplies can again help. This paper also shows, through a case study, the application of a limited rate arranged system to an irrigation district in Washington State where significant flexibility has led to efficient water use and economic and environmental benefits.     

Design and Management of Subsurface Horizontal Drainage to Reduce Salt Loads

Many irrigated areas have shallow water tables creating waterlogging and salinization problems. This has often been controlled by installation of subsurface horizontal pipe drainage; however, these systems export large amounts of salt off farm in the drainage effluent. Improved design and management of subsurface drainage systems to reduce drainage salt loads were tested in a replicated field experiment. Deep, widely spaced drains allowed to flow without control were compared to drains with management to reduce drain flow. These were also compared with shallow, closely spaced drains that protected the root zone only and an undrained control. The deep drains flowed continuously during the two irrigation seasons with an electrical conductivity of around 11 dS∕m resulting in a drainage salt load of 5,867 kg∕ha. The management measures reduced drainage volume and salinity resulting in a 50% reduction in salt load. The shallow drains only flowed directly after an irrigation or rainfall event with low salinity, around 2 dS∕m, resulting in a 95% reduction in salt load. This showed that by management there is great potential for reducing salt mobilization in existing drainage systems, and for new systems shallower drains will minimize salt loads.     

Measuring On-Farm Irrigation Efficiency with Chloride Tracing under Deficit Irrigation

Water is a limited resource in agricultural production in arid climates. Under such conditions, high irrigation efficiency can be obtained either through implementation of efficient irrigation systems such as drip or sprinkler systems or through the age-old practice of deficit irrigation with gravity systems. The method used to increase irrigation efficiency is often dictated by economic and/or social factors. In either case, the effectiveness of water management at the farm level needs to be evaluated by measuring irrigation efficiency. The objective of this study was to evaluate the irrigation efficiencies for three crops in Southern New Mexico using the chloride technique. The chloride technique is a simple method in which the natural chloride in the irrigation water is used as a tracer to estimate the leaching fraction and the irrigation efficiency at the farm level. Soil samples were collected from various fields in 15 cm increments to a depth of 180 cm at the end of the irrigation season. The samples were analyzed for moisture and chloride content. In addition to the chloride technique, on-farm irrigation efficiencies were measured using applied water, yield, and water production functions. Water production functions and yields were used to estimate total evapotranspiration while flow measurements were used to calculate the amount of applied water. The results showed that high irrigation efficiency can be accomplished using deficit irrigation. Irrigation efficiency values ranged from 83 to 98%. Irrigation efficiencies using the chloride technique were compared with efficiencies estimated from direct flow measurements. The differences between the two methods ranged from 2 to 11.4%. The results showed that even though the chloride technique is subject to sampling errors and simplified theoretical assumptions, it can be used to estimate on-farm irrigation efficiency with considerable accuracy.     

Optimum Design and Management of Pressurized Branched Irrigation Networks

The scarcity of water resources is the driving force behind modernizing irrigation systems in order to guarantee equal rights to all beneficiaries and to save water. Traditional distribution systems have the common shortcoming that water must be distributed through some rotational criteria. This type of distribution is necessary to spread the benefits of scarce resources. Irrigation systems based on on-demand delivery scheduling offer flexibility to farmers and greater potential profit than other types of irrigation schedules. However, in this type of irrigation system, the network design has to be adequate for delivering the demand during the peak period whilst satisfying minimum pressure constraints along with minimum and maximum velocity constraints at the farm delivery points (hydrants) and in the pipes, respectively. In this paper, optimum design and management of pressurized irrigation systems are considered to be based on rotation and on-demand delivery scheduling using a genetic algorithm. Comparison is made between the two scheduling techniques by application to two real irrigation systems. Performance criteria are formulated for the optimum design of a new irrigation system and better management of an existing irrigation system. The design and management problems are highly constrained optimization problems. Special operators are developed for handling the large number of constraints in the representation and fitness evaluation stages of the genetic algorithm. The performance of the developed genetic algorithm is assessed in comparison to traditional optimization techniques. It is shown that the methodology developed performs better than the linear programming method and that solutions generated by the modified genetic algorithm show an improvement in capital cost. The method is also shown to perform better in satisfying the constraints. Comparison between on-demand and rotation delivery scheduling shows that a greater than 50% saving can be achieved in total cost at the cost of reducing flexibility in the irrigation time. Finally, it is shown that minimizing standard deviation of flow in pipes does not result in the best distribution, and therefore minimum cost, neither for systems with uniform flows or those with large variations in discharge at hydrants.     

Impact of Irrigation Management Transfer on Land and Water Productivity and Water Supply in the Gediz Basin, Turkey

In the 1990s, Turkey started a fast transfer program in which a large proportion of government-managed irrigation systems were put into the hands of Water Users’ Associations (WUAs) in a very short space of time. One of the first systems to be handed over was the Gediz Basin. This study aims to set out the effects of the transfer of irrigation management in this basin on water and land productivity and water supply. For this purpose, the indicators of productivity and water supply proposed by the International Water Management Institute have been used to show changes between the pretransfer, transfer, and post-transfer periods. WUA averages for the post-transfer period calculated from the results ranged $2,076–$2,898?ha?1 for output per command area, $2,747–$4,585?ha?1 for output per irrigated area, $0.26–$0.68?m?3 for output per irrigation supply, $0.30–$0.63?m?3 for output per unit water consumed, 0.88–1.49 for relative water supply, and 0.99–1.99 for relative irrigation supply. During the period evaluated by the study, there was a decline in water supply indicators, as against a steady increase in the productivity of water and land use. The basic reason for this decrease in supply is the long-lasting and ongoing drought in the region.     

Night Irrigation Reduction for Water Saving in Medium-Sized Systems

In many medium-sized irrigation systems water is wasted during the night because demand is low and supply is not reduced accordingly. A hydrodynamic model was applied, using MIKE 11 as a software tool, to simulate abrupt discharge changes and their travel times along small irrigation canals. Filling and emptying of the canal were also analyzed. The model was calibrated with data of a field experiment that included startup, positive, and negative surges. A technique was developed to take into account the considerable water losses in the canal. Performance indicators efficiency, adequacy, equity, and dependability, proposed by Molden and Gates in 1990, were redefined using the concept of usefully delivered discharge. The newly defined indicators were consequently used to find the gate operation scenario that meets optimally the target day and night discharges. It was found that it is feasible to implement night delivery reduction. The calibrated model was used to develop guidelines for the operation of the canal with daily flow variation, resulting in considerable water savings during the night.     

River Hydrograph Retransmission Functions of Irrigated Valley Surface Water–Groundwater Interactions

Storage and release functions of western U.S. traditional river valley irrigation systems may counteract early and rapid spring river runoff associated with climate variation. Along the Rio Grande in northern New Mexico, we instrumented a 20-km-long irrigated valley to measure water balance components from 2005 to 2007. Hydrologic processes of the system were incorporated into a system dynamics model to test scenarios of changed water use. Of river water diverted into an earthen irrigation canal system, some was consumed by crop evapotranspiration (7.4%), the rest returned to the river as surface return flow (59.3%) and shallow groundwater return flow that originated as seepage from canals (12.1%) and fields (21.2%). The modeled simulations showed that the coupled surface water irrigation system and shallow aquifer act together to store water underground and then release it to the river, effectively retransmitting river flow until later in the year. Water use conversion to nonirrigation purposes and reduced seepage from canals and fields will likely result in higher spring runoff and lower fall and winter river flow.     

Water Delivery System Planning Considering Irrigation Simultaneity

Time should be considered in carrying out the design and management of demand irrigation distribution systems. In this paper, a method to characterize the pumping flow in demand pressurized systems throughout the day and irrigation season is presented. This method considers the temporal evolution of water requirements during the irrigation season and water demand concentration in certain periods of the irrigation day due to different electrical energy charges. The model was established based on data from an actual water distribution network of an irrigation district in southern Spain. The results differed significantly from those obtained using approaches based on establishing a uniform working probability for the outlets of the water distribution network at all hours of the irrigation day, which underestimated the circulating flows or system capacity. The most probable pumping flow with uniform probability was 3.1 m3/s, a smaller value than those obtained in the off-peak and average energy tariff times (4 and 3.4 m3/s, respectively). The total energy head required at the booster pumping in each period of the irrigation season was simulated. 10,000 randomly chosen scenarios were simulated for each irrigation day and each energy tariff time. The heterogeneous vertical stratification between 50 and 103 m of the required piezometric head was obtained as a function of the demanded flow for the water distribution system. This paper includes a pump selection algorithm for recommending least cost or optimum pump combinations in the distribution network and to evaluate the system’s energy cost. The pump recommendations show that the optimal solution could have saved 41% of the pumping cost of the Fuente Palmera irrigation district.     

Development and Evaluation of Soil Moisture-Based Seepage Irrigation Management for Water Use and Quality

A 2-year study was conducted at a seepage-irrigated vegetable farm in south Florida to develop and evaluate an improved, soil moisture-based irrigation management practice that could potentially reduce irrigation water use, prevent water quality impairment, and maintain or improve crop yield. The improved practice reduced irrigation water use by 36% compared to the conventional irrigation management. Moreover, the improved practice also increased rainfall retention and decreased runoff events by lowering the water table 13?cm compared to the conventional practice. Total dissolved phosphorus (P) concentrations in groundwater were higher (p<0.01) for the improved practice compared with the conventional practice in two of the three fields where ground water quality was monitored. Higher P concentrations for the improved practice were likely due to the dilution effect. Statistically, no differences (p>0.05) were observed in groundwater nitrogen (N) (NOx–N, NH4–N, and total dissolved N) concentrations between the improved and the conventional practices. Similarly, no statistical difference was observed in crop yield between the improved and the conventional practices, although the average total yield was higher for the improved practice. The improved practice also reduced the incidence of plant disease compared to the conventional practice which resulted in crop failure in some fields. Thus, use of the improved practice reduced irrigation water use without impacting crop yield.     

我国铸铁管业的现状与发展

铸铁管的主要特点是强度高、韧性好、管壁薄、耐腐蚀 ,广泛应用于城市及工业供排水和燃气的输送等。铸铁管材质以球墨铸铁为主 ,主要采用连续铸造法。从国内外铸铁管生产及应用情况进行分析 ,提出了我国铸管行业的发展趋势。     

Farmers’ Adaptation and Regional Land-Use Changes in Irrigation Systems under Fluctuating Water Supply, South India

In closing river basins where nearly all available water is committed to existing uses, downstream irrigation projects are expected to experience water shortages more frequently. Understanding the scope for resilience and adaptation of large surface irrigation systems is vital to the development of management strategies designed to mitigate the impact of river basin closure on food production and the livelihoods of farmers. A multilevel analysis (farm-level surveys and regional assessment through remote-sensing techniques and statistics) of the dynamics of irrigation and land use in the Nagarjuna Sagar project (South India) in times of changing water availability (2000–2006) highlights that during low-flow years, there is large-scale adoption of rainfed or supplementary irrigated crops that have lower land productivity but higher water productivity, and that a large fraction of land is fallowed. Cropping pattern changes during the drought reveal short-term coping strategies rather than long-term evolutions: after the shock, farmers reverted to their usual cropping patterns during years with adequate canal supplies. For the sequence of water supply fluctuations observed from 2000 to 2006, the Nagarjuna Sagar irrigation system shows a high level of sensitivity to short-term perturbations, but long-term resilience if flows recover. Management strategies accounting for local-level adaptability will be necessary to mitigate the impacts of low-flow years but there is scope for improvement of the performance of the system.     

Sprinkler Head Maintenance Effects on Water Application Uniformity

The effects of wear on the ability of hand-move and side-roll sprinkler irrigation systems to maintain the designed water application rate and uniformity are of concern with regards to crop performance, water use efficiency, and environmental impact. Six hand-move and six side-roll sprinkler irrigation systems used under commercial crop production in Lane County, Oreg., were evaluated for equipment wear and performance. Individual sprinkler nozzle size and discharge rates were measured for each system and used in a computer model to estimate field application rate and uniformity. New nozzles were installed on six systems to compare potential application rate and uniformity with existing performance. Despite reducing the coefficient of variation in discharge between sprinklers from 10 to 2%, little increase in water application uniformity was attained. A 13% decrease in mean water application rate was documented after nozzle replacement. Ignored overapplication due to worn or mismatched nozzles results in overirrigation in both rate and total amount, which gives rise to the potential for increased surface redistribution and deep percolation, resulting in water and nutrient losses.     

Regional Salinity Modeling for Conjunctive Water Use Planning in Kheri Command

A one-dimensional water and solute transport UNSATCHEM model is calibrated and validated with a saline water use experiment for wheat and cotton crops. The model is further employed for regional scale salinity modeling with distributed data on soil, irrigation water supply, and its quality from six representative locations from the Kheri command of the Bhakra irrigation system. The wheat–cotton crop rotation, the main rotation in the command, is considered during long-term simulations. The CROPWAT model is used to determine the evapotranspiration requirements of different wheat and cotton crops, while soil water retention parameters are estimated by the RETC model. Atmospheric water and solute boundary conditions are assumed at the top boundary, while free drainage is considered for the lower boundary, as the watertable in the command is sufficiently deep. Simulated salinity and yield values are compared with observed values for regional validation of the model. Critical areas in the command are identified using regional scale modeling results, and applying irrigation water availability and root zone salinity criteria. Guidelines for sustainable conjunctive water use planning are for the Kheri command to get optimum agricultural production despite the use of saline water for irrigation under prevailing scenarios of water availability and its quality.     

Performance-Based Optimization of Land and Water Resources within Irrigation Schemes. I: Method

Optimum land and water allocation to different crops grown in different regions of an irrigation scheme is a complex process, especially when these irrigation schemes are characterized by different soils and environment and by a large network of canals. At the same time if the water supply in the irrigation schemes is limited, there is a need to allocate water both efficiently and equitably. This paper describes the approach to include both productivity (efficiency) and equity in the allocation process and to develop the allocation plans for optimum productivity and/or maximum equity for such irrigation schemes. The approach presented in this paper considers the different dimensions of equity such as water distribution over the season, water distribution during each irrigation, and benefits generated. It also includes distribution and conveyance losses while allocating water equitably to different allocation units. This paper explains the approach with the help of the area and water allocation model which uses the simulation–optimization technique for optimum allocation of land and water resources to different crops grown in different allocation units of the irrigation scheme.     

Investigation of the Influence of Sprinkler Fins and Dissolved Air on Jet Flow

Experimental investigations of an irrigation gun water jet revealed that the flow is a mixture due to the degassing of the air dissolved in the supply water. The expansion of resulting air bubbles allowed velocity measurements in the region of the free jet close to the nozzle by a nonintrusive method (particle image velocimetry). Additional measurements were also implemented with an intrusive double-tip optical fiber probe. In this study a comparison was undertaken on the dynamic parameters of the outflow from a gun with fins and a second unfinned. Results underline the effects of fins and degassing on the jet internal properties and their consequences on the irrigation process.     

Offtake Sensitivity, Operation Effectiveness, and Performance of Irrigation System

Analytical relationships between the control of canal water depth, the sensitivity of irrigation delivery structures, and the resulting internal performance are established at the system level. One system sensitivity indicator is derived for both adequacy and efficiency, and two for equity (coefficient of variation and Theil information index). The level of precision which reflects the effectiveness in controlling water depth is defined as a permissible variation of water depth at the cross-regulator (±ΔHR) about the target. The degree of influence exercised by the cross-regulator on offtakes is accounted for through an influence factor between zero and one. The behavior of three different irrigation systems in Sri Lanka and Pakistan is studied with both analytical system indicators and numerical hydraulic simulations. It shows good agreement for a range of precision between 0.02 and 0.2 m. These global system indicators can be used to define the precision level required to achieve a given performance, to estimate actual performance from recorded precision at regulators, and to diminish the system sensitivity, improving the performance for a given precision. Practical operating policies can be inferred from sensitivity information of irrigation systems without the necessity of a complex irrigation operation model.     

Sensor-Based Automation of Irrigation on Bermudagrass during Dry Weather Conditions

Overirrigation of lawns with limited resources of potable water has increasingly become an issue for the state of Florida. A previous study showed that soil moisture sensors systems (SMSs) could lead to irrigation water savings during relatively wet/normal weather conditions. This research, as a follow-up comparison, was conducted under dry weather conditions. The first objective was to statistically evaluate the water savings potential of different commercially available SMSs during the first half of 2006. In the second half, the objectives were to quantify irrigation water use and to evaluate turfgrass quality differences among: (1) a time-based irrigation schedule system with and without a rain sensor; (2) time-based schedules compared to SMS-based systems; and (3) SMS-based systems under different irrigation frequencies. The experimental area was located in Gainesville, Fla. and consisted of common bermudagrass [Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers.] plots. Four commercially available SMSs (brands Acclima, Rain Bird, Irrometer, and Water Watcher) were used to bypass scheduled irrigation cycles when the soil water content at the 7- to 10-cm depth was above field capacity. Time-based treatments with and without rain sensor feedback were set up as comparisons for irrigation depth applied, and a nonirrigated treatment for turf quality comparison purposes was implemented. Due to the dry weather conditions and/or infrequent rain events during the experiment, the nonirrigated plots (as well as a broken SMS treatment) resulted in turfgrass quality below the minimum acceptable level. The rest of the treatments had at least minimum acceptable turf quality. The treatment with rain sensor resulted in 13 to 24% less water applied than without the rain sensor treatment. Most SMS-based treatments resulted in significant irrigation water savings compared to the treatment without rain sensor, which ranged from 16 to 54% in the first half, and from 28 to 83% in the second half of 2006, for three of four SMS brands tested.     

Alternative Delivery Scheduling for Improved Canal System Performance

Alternative delivery scheduling approaches intended to overcome the problem of low efficiency in Indian irrigation projects are presented. The features of the historical delivery schedules in the Right Bank Main Canal system of Kangsabati irrigation project, located in the state of West Bengal, India, have been studied, and nine modified schedules of varied rate rotation (variable discharge, constant duration, and constant frequency) prepared. Daily water balance simulation of the command area in the Kharif (rainy) season has been used to compare the performance of alternate schedules. An alternate schedule with three irrigations of 20 to 21 days’ duration, followed by 20 days of canal closure after each irrigation, was found to perform the best. The proposed alternate schedule results in a better match between supply and demand and results in 13% water saving when compared to the existing schedules. The irrigation periods of this schedule cover the expected dry spells and critical rice growth stage. An added advantage of the proposed schedule is an improvement in the reliability of supply, which will encourage farmers to invest more on other inputs resulting in enhanced water use efficiency and improved yields.     

OCCASION: New Planning Tool for Optimal Climate Change Adaption Strategies in Irrigation

To sustain productive irrigated agriculture with limited water resources requires a high water use efficiency. This can be achieved by the precise scheduling of deficit irrigation systems taking into account the crops’ response to water stress at different stages of plant growth. Particularly in the light of climate change with rising population numbers and increasing water scarcity, an optimal solution for this task is of paramount importance. We solve the corresponding complex multidimensional and nonlinear optimization problem, i.e., finding the ideal schedule for maximum crop yield with a given water volume by a well tailored approach which offers straightforward application facilities. A global optimization technique allows, together with physically based modeling, for the risk assessment in yield reduction considering different sources of uncertainty (e.g., climate, soil conditions, and management). A new stochastic framework for decision support is developed which aims at optimal climate change adaption strategies in irrigation. It consists of: (1) a weather generator for simulating regional impacts of climate change; (2) a tailor-made evolutionary optimization algorithm for optimal irrigation scheduling with limited water supply; and (3) mechanistic models for rigorously simulating water transport and crop growth. The result, namely, stochastic crop-water production functions, allows to assess the impact of climate variability on potential yield and thus provides a valuable tool for estimating minimum water demands for irrigation in water resources planning and management, assisting furthermore in generating maps of yield uncertainty for specific crops and specific agricultural areas. The tool is successfully applied at an experimental site in southern France. The impacts of predicted climate variability on maize are discussed.