Making Large Gravity
Irrigation Systems Perform
Author(s)
G. Spencer
Abstract
By 2050 the world’s population will increase by an estimated 50%. Most of the
increased food demands will have to come from productivity improvements in
existing irrigated agricultural areas. These improvements will need to be
achieved with less water and less farm land because of the competition from
urbanization, industrialization, the need to provide water for environmental
purposes and to respond to climate change impacts. Therefore, the challenge
facing us is to make existing irrigation systems more efficient and productive to
better utilize the shrinking agricultural land and water resources.
In south-eastern Australia, severe water shortages brought about by a
prolonged 11 year drought sequence has spurred a lot of innovative thinking
about how to use the limited available water more efficiently in irrigation and, at
the same time, improving the performance of irrigation systems.
A higher level of technological investment in the modernization of large
unlined, gravity fed irrigation systems in the south-eastern state of Victoria has
resulted in increases in efficiency from about 70% up to about 90% - a
remarkable outcome. In Victoria, the water saved is being reallocated equally
between urban and industrial users, the environment and to existing farmers to
improve their security of supply.
The investment required is a mix of both hardware and software involving
remotely controlled gates, accurate water measuring devices, Supervisory
Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) and system management software. This
investment, combined with modelling and control technologies, has resulted in
the delivery of significantly improved services to irrigators in terms of equity,
reliability and flexibility, and huge improvements in the management capability
and performance of existing large-scale irrigation systems.
Keywords
modernization, SCADA, channel control technology, accurate water measurement, improved performance and efficiency, water resource savings
Related Book
Other papers in this volume
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