Hydrological impacts of rainwater harvesting (RWH) in a case study catchment: The Arvari River, Rajasthan, India: Part 2. Catchment-scale impacts

A key question in relation to rainwater harvesting (RWH) is whether the technique increases the sustainability of irrigated agriculture. A conceptual water balance model, based on field data from the Arvari River catchment, was developed to study and understand catchment-scale trade-offs of rainwater harvesting (RWH). The model incorporates an effective representation of RWH function and impact, and works on a daily time step. Catchment spatial variability is captured through sub-basins. Within each sub-basin hydrological response units (HRUs) describe the different land use/soil combinations associated with the case study catchment, including irrigated agriculture. Sustainability indices, based on irrigated agriculture water demand, were used to compare conceptual management scenarios. The results show that as RWH area increases, it reaches a limiting capacity from where additional RWH structures do not increase the benefit to groundwater stores, but reduces stream flow. If the irrigation area is increased at the optimal level of RWH, where the sustainability indices were greatest, the resilience of the system actually decreased. Nevertheless RWH in a system increased the overall sustainability of the water resource for irrigated agriculture, compared to a system without RWH. Also RWH provided a slight buffer in the groundwater store when drought occurred. The conceptual analysis highlights the important link between irrigation area and RWH area, and the impact of RWH on the catchment water balance.     

Water demand and flows in the São Francisco River Basin (Brazil) with increased irrigation

Most activities that support economic growth in the São Francisco River Basin (Brazil) need water. Allocation of the water resources to each competing use needs quantification in order to develop an integrated water management plan. Irrigation agriculture is the largest water consuming activity in the basin. It has produced large economic and social advancements in the region and has potential for further development. The local development agency in the São Francisco River has projected an increase of more than 500,000 ha in irrigation developments distributed within the basin.Water requirements of the projected irrigation expansions and their effects on river flow were quantified. A semi-distributed model was constructed to simulate the water balance in 16 watersheds within the basin. The watersheds were hydrologically characterized by the average precipitation, atmospheric demand and runoff as well as their variability. Water requirements for increased irrigated agriculture were calculated using an agronomic mass balance. A Monte Carlo procedure generated the variability of irrigation requirements and resulting decreased river flows from the multidimensional probability distribution of the hydrologic variables of each watershed.Irrigation requirements were found to be more variable during the wet season because of weather variability. In contrast to what might be expected, in drier years, irrigation requirements were often larger during the wet season than in the dry season because the cropped area is largest in the wet months and variability of precipitation is greater. Increased irrigation shifted downward the distribution of river flows but not enough to affect other strategic water uses such as hydropower. Further irrigation expansion may be limited by wet season flows.     

Hydraulic-hydrological simulations of canal-command for irrigation water management

A modelling system that combines the hydraulic simulations of the canal and hydrological simulations of the irrigated command is introduced. It uses MIKE 11 and MIKE SHE, two well-established modelling systems, for the hydraulic and hydrological simulations respectively. In addition, it also has an irrigation scheduling module and a crop growth module. The modelling system is applied to the Mahanadi Reservoir Irrigation Scheme, a large irrigation project in Central India. The results show that presently a significant amount of water is wasted in the command during the monsoon season. It is demonstrated that the minimization of this wastage could lead to a substantial crop production in the subsequent dry season. Furthermore, the simulations illustrate the versatility of the modelling system for planning and analysing the various aspects of an irrigation project.     

Adapting to intersectoral transfers in the Zhanghe Irrigation System, China: Part I. In-system storage characteristics

The Zhanghe Irrigation System (ZIS), in Central China, has drawn attention internationally because it managed to sustain its rice production in the face of a dramatic reallocation of water to cities, industries and hydropower uses. Ponds, the small reservoirs ubiquitous in the area, are hypothesized to have been instrumental in this. Ponds are recharged by a combination of return flows from irrigation and runoff from catchment areas within the irrigated perimeter. They provide a flexible, local source of irrigation water to farmers. This paper assesses the storage capacity and some key hydrological properties of ponds in a major canal command within ZIS. Using remote sensing data (Landsat and IKONOS) and an area–volume relationship based on a field survey, we obtained an overall pond storage capacity of 96 mm (per unit irrigated area). A comparative analysis between 1978 and 2001 reveals that part of this capacity results from a very significant development of ponds (particularly in the smaller range of sizes) in the time interval, probably as a response to rapidly declining canal supplies. We developed a high-resolution digital elevation model from 1:10,000 topographic maps to support a GIS-based hydrological analysis. Pond catchments were delineated and found to extensively overlap, forming hydrological cascades of up to 15 units. In a 76-km² area within the irrigation system, we found an average of close to five ‘connected’ ponds downstream of each irrigated pixel. This high level of connectivity provides opportunities for multiple reuses of water as it flows along toposequences. A fundamental implication is that field ‘losses’ such as seepage and percolation do not necessarily represent losses at a larger scale. Such scale effects need to be adequately taken into account to avoid making wrong assumptions about water-saving interventions in irrigation.     

Mapping agricultural responses to water supply shocks in large irrigation systems, southern India

Irrigated agriculture experienced a water supply shock during a drought in southern India in 2002-2003. In this paper, hotspots of agricultural change were mapped and put in the context of hydrology and water management. Time series of MODIS imagery taken every eight days before (2001-2002) and during (2002-2003) the supply shock were combined with agricultural census data to document changes in cropping patterns in four large irrigation projects in the downstream sections of the Krishna and Godavari River basins (total command area 18,287 km²). The area cropped in rice in the four irrigated command areas decreased by 32% during the drought year, and rice production in the two districts that experienced the largest flow reductions fell below production levels of 1980. The irrigation project that showed the largest change in double cropped area (−90%) was upstream of the Krishna Delta. In the Krishna Delta, large areas changed from rice-rice to rice-gram double cropping. Historical water management contributed to the vulnerability of rice production to drought: the main reservoir in the system was drained to dead storage levels by the end of each growing season over 1968-2000, with little carryover storage. The land cover change maps suggested that the lower Krishna Basin has experienced a “hard landing” during basin closure, and revised management strategies that account for the new flow regime will be required to maintain agricultural production during droughts.     

DRAINMOD-S: Water management model for irrigated arid lands,crop yield and applications

The primary objective of an agriculture water management system is to provide crop needs to sustain high yields. Another objective of equal or greater importance in some regions is to reduce agriculture impacts on surface and groundwater quality. Kandil et al. (1992) modified the water management model DRAINMOD to predict soil salinity as affected by irrigation water quality and drainage system design. The objectives of this study are to incorporate an algorithm to quantify the effects of stresses due to soil salinity on crop yields and to demonstrate the applications of the model. DRAINMOD-S, is capable of predicting the long-term effects of different irrigation and drainage practices on crop yields. The overall crop function in the model includes the effects of stresses caused by excessive soil water conditions (waterlogging), soil water-deficits, salinity, and planting delays. Three irrigation strategies and six drain spacings were considered for all crops. In the first irrigation strategy, the irrigation amounts were equal to evapotranspiration requirements by the crops, with the addition of a 10 cm depth of water for leaching applied during each growing season. In the second strategy, the leaching depth (10 cm) was applied before the growing season. In the third strategy, a leaching depth of 15 cm was applied before the growing season for each crop. Another strategy (4th) with more leaching was considered for bean which is the crop most sensitive to salinity. In the fourth strategy, 14 days intervals were used instead of 7 and leaching irrigations were applied: 15 cm before the growing season and 10 cm at the middle of the growing season for bean. The objective function for these simulations was crop yield. Soil water conditions and soil salinity were continuously simulated for a crop rotation of bean, cotton, maize, soybean, and wheat over a 19 years period. Yields of individual crops were predicted for each growing season. Results showed that the third irrigation strategy resulted in the highest yields for cotton, maize, soybean and wheat. Highest yields for bean were obtained by the fourth irrigation strategy. Results are also presented on the effects of drain depth and spacing on yields. DRAINMOD-S is written in Fortran and requires a PC with math-coprocessor. It was concluded that DRAINMOD-S is a useful tool for design and evaluation of irrigation and drainage systems in irrigated arid lands.     

黄土高原不同水平年旱涝时空分布特征分析

全球气候变暖大背景下,黄土高原总体呈现暖干化趋势,未来干旱还可能会加剧。为了全面了解黄土高原旱涝时空变化特征,为黄土高原应对旱涝灾害提供决策依据,根据黄土高原及周边263个气象站的降水数据划分降水水平年,以标准化降水指数（SPI）为指标,分析了黄土高原地区不同水平年年际及年内旱涝特征。结果显示,黄土高原在丰、平、枯水年均有不同程度的干旱发生。丰水年黄土高原干旱面积占5.7%,雨涝面积占40.9%;平水年干旱面积占12.7%,雨涝面积占19.3%;枯水年干旱面积占44.4%,雨涝面积占17.9%。不同水平年的干旱区域存在差异。不同水平年内春旱较重,丰水年和平水年雨季开始后干旱逐渐缓解,枯水年雨季不能有效缓解春季以来的干旱,且秋涝明显,各水平年年内干旱的时空分布存在显著差异。不同水平年年际和年内旱涝差异大且变化频繁,为了确保黄土高原农业生产旱涝保收,应合理布设小型水利工程与田间灌溉设施。      

Modernization and optimization of irrigation systems to increase water productivity

Population increase and the improvement of living standards brought about by development will result in a sharp increase in food demand during the next decades. Most of this increase will be met by the products of irrigated agriculture. At the same time, the water input per unit irrigated area will have to be reduced in response to water scarcity and environmental concerns. Water productivity is projected to increase through gains in crop yield and reductions in irrigation water. In order to meet these projections, irrigation systems will have to be modernized and optimised. Water productivity can be defined in a number of ways, although it always represents the output of a given activity (in economic terms, if possible) divided by some expression of water input. Five expressions for this indicator were identified, using different approaches to water input. A hydrological analysis of water productivity poses a number of questions on the choice of the water input expression. In fact, when adopting a basin-wide perspective, irrigation return flows often can not be considered as net water losses. A number of irrigation modernization and optimization measures are discussed in the paper. Particular attention was paid to the improvement of irrigation management, which shows much better economic return than the improvement of the irrigation structures. The hydrological effects of these improvements may be deceiving, since they will be accompanied by larger crop evapotranspiration and even increased cropping intensity. As a consequence, less water will be available for alternative uses.     

山东省引黄灌区农业节水技术应用研究

针对山东省引黄灌区的农业用水状况 ,提出引黄灌区需遵循引黄补源、以井保丰 ,井渠结合的基本农业生产用水思路 ,在区域范围内合理规划调控地表水、地下水 ,以保证灌区有限水资源发挥最大效益。并通过工程及节水配套的应用与集成 ,总结出黄河下游灌区农业节水发展模式     

Building a climate resilient farm: A risk based approach for understanding water, energy and emissions in irrigated agriculture

The links between water application, energy consumption and emissions are complex in irrigated agriculture. There is a need to ensure that water and energy use is closely considered in future industry planning and development to provide practical options for adaptation and to build resilience at the farm level. There is currently limited data available regarding the uncertainty and sensitivity associated with water application and energy consumption in irrigated crop production in Australia. This paper examines water application and energy consumption relationships for different irrigation systems, and the ways in which the uncertainty of different parameters impacts on these relationships and associated emissions for actual farms. This analysis was undertaken by examining the current water and energy patterns of crop production at actual farms in two irrigated areas of Australia (one using surface water and the other groundwater), and then modelling the risk/uncertainty and sensitivity associated with the link between water and energy consumption at the farm scale. Results showed that conversions from gravity to pressurised irrigation methods reduced water application, but there was a simultaneous increase in energy consumption in surface irrigation areas. In groundwater irrigated areas, the opposite is true; the use of pressurised irrigation methods can reduce water application and energy consumption by enhancing water use efficiency. Risk and uncertainty analysis quantified the range of water and energy use that might be expected for a given irrigation method for each farm. Sensitivity analysis revealed the contribution of climatic (evapotranspiration and rainfall) and technical factors (irrigation system efficiency, pump efficiency, suction and discharge head) impacting the uncertainty and the model output and water-energy system performance in general. Flood irrigation systems were generally associated with greater uncertainty than pressurised systems. To enhance resilience at the farm level, the optimum situation envisaged an irrigation system that minimises water and energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Where surface water is used, well designed and managed flood irrigation systems will minimise the operating energy and carbon equivalent emissions. Where groundwater is the dominant use, the optimum system is a well designed and managed pressurised system operating at the lowest discharge pressure possible that will still allow for efficient irrigation. The findings might be useful for farm level risk mitigation strategies in surface and groundwater systems, and for aiding adaptation to climate change.     

Planning and management of a complex water resource system: case of Samanalawewa and Udawalawe reservoirs in the Walawe river,Sri Lanka

The Samanalawewa and Udawalawe reservoirs were built to harness the hydro-energy and irrigation potentials of the Walawe river in Sri Lanka. The recently completed Samanalawewa reservoir primarily generates hydropower while the Udawalawe reservoir, which was built in the 1960s, supplies water mainly for irrigation. With the addition of the Samanalawewa reservoir, located upstream of the Udawalawe reservoir, the Government of Sri Lanka is planning to increase the irrigated area of the Udawalawe reservoir. The Samanalawewa reservoir is expected to act as an additional storage for irrigation water supply. A study was carried out to investigate the operational behavior of these two reservoirs. The model used in the study is based on stochastic dynamic programming (SDP) and simulation techniques. Since, the direct application of SDP for two reservoirs is limited by the dimensionality of the problem, a sequential decomposition method is employed in the model. The algorithm employed breaks down the system into single-reservoir subsystems and subsequently, each subsystem’s operation is individually optimized using a SDP based optimization model and then simulated using a reservoir operation simulation model. The results indicate the usefulness of optimization techniques in planning reservoirs and deriving operational policies for them. The inclusion of the Samanalawewa reservoir reduces the irrigation water supply deficits at the Udawalawe reservoir.     

Soil water regime under pasture in the humid zone of spain: Validation of an empirical model and prediction of irrigation requirements

In the spanish humid zone, the irregular within-year distribution of rainfall often leads to a need for supplementary irrigation during the summer. In the Terra Chd region of Galicia (northwest Spain), this is the case despite the hydromorphic characteristics of the soil. During 1990, we used a neutron probe to monitor variation in soil water content under rainfed grassland. Soil water balance over the study period was also simulated with an empirical model, ISAREG. In general, there was good agreement between measured and predicted soil water storage; cumulative water use was also satisfactorily predicted. The model was then used to predict the probability distribution of annual net irrigation requirements for pasture in this area, on the basis of 24 years' climatic data. Interannual variation was very high, with modelled requirement ranging from 0 to 232 mm. In view of this variability it is not possible to reliably predict the optimum irrigation schedule at the start of each growing season. Finally, we discuss various aspects of irrigation management in this area, taking into account soil available water and climate.     

湖北平原湖区农业防旱抗旱与应急施救研究

以2010年冬至2011年春的区域干旱为背景,基于面上调查和典型调查,通过分析认为,开春以来数月干旱少雨,使油菜、小麦和棉花以及露地蔬菜等旱作物受到不同程度影响,平原湖区小麦普遍增产、个别地方略有减产,油菜则普遍减产,受干旱影响最大的是早稻和水产养殖。根据2011年3月以来旱情发展对农业的影响,提出了抗旱应急的水利措施...     

Remote sensing for irrigation water management in the semi-arid Northeast of Brazil

Northeast of Brazil is a semi-arid region, where water is a key strategic resource in the development of all sectors of the economy. Irrigation agriculture is the main water consumer in this region. Therefore, policy directives are calling for tools to aid operational monitoring in planning, control and charging of irrigation water. Using Landsat imagery, this study evaluates the utility of a process that measures the level of water use in an irrigated area of the state of Ceará. The experiment, which models evapotranspiration (ET), was carried out within the Jaguaribe-Apodi irrigation scheme (DIJA) during two months of the agricultural season. The ET was estimated with the model Mapping Evapotranspiration at High Resolution and with Internalized Calibration (METRIC). The model uses the residual of the energy balance equation to estimate ET for each pixel in the image. The results of the estimates were validated using measurements of ET from a micrometeorological tower installed within a banana plantation located near the irrigation scheme. After evaluating the ET estimates, the average fraction of depleted water for a set of agricultural parcels combined with the monthly ET mapping estimates by METRIC provided a method for predicting the total water use in DIJA for the study period. The results were then compared against the monthly accumulated flow rates for all the pumping stations provided by the district manager. Finally, this work discusses the potential use of the model as an alternative method to calculate water consumption in irrigated agriculture and the implications for water resource management in irrigated perimeters.     

基于DP-PSO算法的灌区农业水资源优化配置

针对引水灌区,考虑灌溉用水总量约束和时段可供水量约束,以单一作物非充分灌溉下灌溉制度优化为第一层,区域多种作物种植结构及水量分配为第二层,分别采用动态规划和粒子群算法求解,建立了基于DP-PSO算法的灌区农业水资源优化配置模型。针对多重约束问题,提出了一种初始化粒子群的方法,并通过粒子速度的动态变化来保证每代粒子都满足约束,提高了算法的收敛速度和收敛精度。以赣抚平原灌区为对象,考虑降雨和水源可供水量不同步的特点,计算了3种降雨频率、多年可供水条件下的农业水资源优化配置方案。结果表明,基于DPPSO算法的农业水资源优化配置模型合理可靠,为引水灌区农业水资源优化提供了一种新的方法。     

Model for performance based land area and water allocation within irrigation schemes

This paper focuses on irrigation schemes under rotational water supply in arid and semiarid regions. It presents a methodology for developing plans for optimum allocation of land area and water, considering performance measures such as productivity, equity and adequacy. These irrigation schemes are characterized by limited water supply and heterogeneity in soils, crops, climate and water distribution network, etc. The methodology proposed in this paper, therefore, uses a previously developed simulation–optimization model (Area and Water Allocation Model, AWAM) that considers the heterogeneity of the irrigation scheme in the allocation process, and modifies this to take account of equity and adequacy of supply to irrigated areas. The AWAM model has four phases to be executed separately for each set of irrigation interval over the irrigation season: 1. generation of irrigation strategies for each crop–soil–region combination (CSR unit), 2. preparation of irrigation programmes for each irrigation strategy, 3. selection of specified number of irrigation programmes for each CSR unit and 4. optimum allocation of land area and water to different parts of the irrigation scheme (allocation units) for maximizing productivity. In the modified AWAM model, the adequacy is included at Phase-2 (by including only the irrigation programmes for full irrigation of each CSR unit) and equity is included at Phase-4 (by including the constraints for equity). The paper briefly discusses the applicability of the modified AWAM model for a case study of Nazare medium irrigation scheme in Southern India. The results of the case study indicated that the performance measures of productivity, equity and adequacy conflict with each other.     

辽西北地区旱情等级标准研究

基于典型干旱指标的基本概念和构建方法,结合辽西北地区的历史干旱资料,对现有旱情等级标准中不同干旱指标的等级界值进行了修订,建立了辽西北地区气象、水文、农业及社会经济4大类干旱、9个典型代表指标的旱情等级标准,增加了旱涝指数Z、径流距平百分比和水库蓄水距平百分比3个指标,并选择2006年、2007年和2009年3个典型干旱年对旱情等级标准的适合程度进行了验证,评价结果与辽西北地区实际干旱情况吻合率达到85%以上,为辽西北地区准确识别、分析、评价旱情提供了技术支撑。     

基于层次分析-模糊综合评价法的水利枢纽灌区工程防汛风险评估

基于我国水利枢纽灌区工程防汛度汛现状,将此类工程防汛风险划分为4个一级指标,12个二级指标,运用层次分析法（AHP）赋予各风险指标权重,进而采用模糊综合评价法确定各风险指标在风险概率、风险损失量、风险预测性和风险进一步恶化可能性4个层次评价标准下的风险指数,并结合各风险指数的权重对防汛风险进行综合的定量与定性评估。选取某灌区二期工程为例,证明该理论可用来降低灌区工程的防汛风险,规避损失,为我国形成完备的水利枢纽灌区工程防汛风险评估体系提供理论指导依据。      

Modeling farm-level adoption of deficit irrigation using Positive Mathematical Programming

Irrigated agriculture in the European Union (EU) is currently adapting to new conditions including the principle of the full recovery of water service costs, the reduction of water availability and the increasing variability in the prices of agricultural products. This has fostered an increasing number of economic analyses to investigate farmers’ behaviour by means of mathematical programming techniques including Positive Mathematical Programming (PMP) models.However PMP models generally consider only activities observed in the reference period even if, under new policies and market conditions, farmers can adopt irrigation techniques they have not used previously. In particular, under increasing water costs or decreasing water availability, farmers can introduce Deficit Irrigation (DI) techniques that might not have been profitable earlier.We propose an extension of the PMP approach to include DI techniques not observed in the reference period. These alternative techniques are identified by means of a crop growth model developed by the FAO. We apply our methodology to a Mediterranean area using three sets of simulations involving: increases in water costs, reductions in water availability, and changes in the prices of the products obtained from irrigated crops.Lacking observations of alternative irrigation techniques, our approach captures potential technology adjustments and assesses the impact of changes in water policy and market conditions in a better way.Simulation results show that increasing water costs do not motivate adoption of DI techniques. Rather, farmers are induced to save water by switching from full irrigation to deficit irrigation when water availability is reduced or the prices of irrigated crops are increased.     

Optimization model of an irrigation reservoir for water allocation and crop planning under various weather conditions

This paper develops a non-linear programming optimization model with an integrated soil water balance, to determine the optimal reservoir release policies, the irrigation allocation to multiple crops and the optimal cropping pattern in irrigated agriculture. Decision variables are the cultivated area and the water allocated to each crop. The objective function of the model maximizes the total farm income, which is based on crop–water production functions, production cost and crop prices. The proposed model is solved using the simulated annealing (SA) global optimization stochastic search algorithm in combination with the stochastic gradient descent algorithm. The rainfall, evapotranspiration and inflow are considered to be stochastic and the model is run for expected values of the above parameters corresponding to different probability of exceedence. By combining various probability levels of rainfall, evapotranspiration and inflow, four weather conditions are distinguished. The model takes into account an irrigation time interval in each growth stage and gives the optimal distribution of area, the water to each crop and the total farm income. The outputs of this model were compared with the results obtained from the model in which the only decision variables are cultivated areas. The model was applied on data from a planned reservoir on the Havrias River in Northern Greece, is sufficiently general and has great potential to be applicable as a decision support tool for cropping patterns of an irrigated area and irrigation scheduling.