Simulation of peak-demand hydrographs in pressurized irrigation delivery systems using a deterministic–stochastic combined model. Part II: model applications

A deterministic–stochastic combined model named HydroGEN was developed, as described in a companion paper (Part I: Model development), to enable the simulation of demanded daily volumes and hourly flow rates during peak periods in pressurized irrigation delivery networks. The model was applied to a pilot large-scale irrigation system located in southern Italy for calibration and for testing its reliability in analyzing the operation of large-scale pressurized delivery systems through the simulated flow configurations. Daily input data on rainfall, temperature, solar radiation, wind speed and relative humidity were gathered from a meteorological station located within the study area, whereas information on local irrigation management practices were collected through interviews with farmers and from extension specialists. The model was tested at different management levels, from district to sector and hydrants. The model testing was supported by the use of high-resolution remote-sensing imagery acquired on a single overpass date in 2006 and then classified and recoded following a ground-truthing campaign conducted during the same year. Simulations were performed to identify the 10-day peak-demand period and to generate the hydrographs of daily volumes and of hourly flow rates. Results from the different simulations were compared with historical datasets of irrigation volumes and discharges recorded during the 2008 and 2009 seasons at the upstream end of the irrigation network under study, at a sector level during the 2007 season and at selected delivery hydrants during the 2005 season. Some discrepancies between simulated and recorded data were noted that can be related to small errors in estimating crop and soil parameters, application efficiency at field level, as well as to large variability in irrigation management practices followed by local farmers. Overall, the results from testing showed that the model is capable of forecasting with good accuracy the timing of peak-demand periods, the irrigation volumes demanded during the season, as well as the hydrographs of daily volumes and hourly flow rates withdrawn by farmers during these peak-demand periods, especially when it is applied to large multi-cropped command areas.     

Coordination in irrigation systems: An analysis of the Lansing–Kremer model of Bali

Farmers within irrigation systems, such as those in Bali, solve complex coordination problems to allocate water and control pests. Lansing and Kremer’s [Lansing, J.S., Kremer, J.N., 1993. Emergent properties of Balinese water temples. American Anthropologist 95(1), 97–114] study of Balinese water temples showed that this coordination problem can be solved by assuming simple local rules for how individual communities make their decisions. Using the original Lansing–Kremer model, the robustness of their insights was analyzed and the ability of agents to self-organize was found to be sensitive to pest dynamics and assumptions of agent decision making.     

SPRINKMOD – pressure and discharge simulation model for pressurized irrigation systems. 2. Case study

A computer model, SPRINKMOD, was tested with field data collected from a complex sprinkler irrigation system in operation. The original data collected were adjusted in order to calibrate the model for the irrigation system. Five modifications were made in the original data so that the model sensitivity could be evaluated. The model predicted the system operating point with less than 1% error, after some adjustments in the data. The relative mean standard error was 4.1% for the upstream pressure heads and 2.1% for the downstream pressure heads of all laterals analyzed together. Measurement of pressure and discharge at pump stations along with a reasonable estimate of leakage appears to be essential for simulation of old systems. Adjustments made to pipe wall thickness and pipe roughness were not as important as the adjustments made to the lateral valves closure in getting SPRINKMOD to simulate pressure heads that were close to the measured values. For long laterals, like center pivot laterals, a variable local loss coefficient for flow past a riser outlet worked better than a fixed value of 0.3. Received: 24 November 1997     

Climate change affects farm nitrogen loss – A Swiss case study with a dynamic farm model

The response of arable crops and grasslands to climatic changes and increasing CO₂ concentration has implications for the operation of farms, in particular for the management of resources such as nitrogen. A simple dynamic farm model (Stella^© model ‘CH-Farm’) was used to analyze the shift in the ratio of N lost via leaching, denitrification and volatilization to N exported with products from dairy or arable production (here defined as relative N loss). The model was run for two types of farms typical of Swiss conditions. Growth parameters for two sequentially grown crops (winter wheat and maize) and grass were determined with the process-oriented models Pasture Simulation Model (PaSim) and CropSyst, respectively. CH-Farm was forced with two assumptions about the transient change in temperature and precipitation, and with or without CO₂ effects. Relative N loss for the baseline was around 1.33 for the dairy-type farm and around 1.05 for the arable-type farm and increased progressively over the 100-year simulation period, with the largest shift in response to the dry/hot scenario. Soil N pools decreased with all scenarios, but at different rates. CO₂ fertilization alleviated the effect of climate change due to increased productivity and N fixation in plants. Adjustment of the growth parameters to progressively increasing temperatures reduced the difference between farm types and positively affected relative N losses mainly through increased productivity and reduced fallow periods between crops. The results suggest that the impact of climate change on relative farm-level N loss depends on physiological adjustments to climatic scenarios, whereas the distribution of land between dairy and arable crop production is less important, and that simple cultivar adjustments can help to mitigate negative effects of climate change on farm-level N use.     

Institutional management regimes for pricing of irrigation water: the French model — lessons for India

In France, the River Basin Committees and Water Agencies are in-charge of managing water resources. However, many surface irrigation networks were initiated and operated by the Regional Companies and farmer syndicates exclusively for agricultural development in the southwest of the country. These are water institutions playing an active role in water management with an objective of cost recovery in order to improve the quality of irrigation services to the users. The implementation of various innovative institutional management approaches by these agencies have yielded a modest degree of success in addressing the crucial problems of the irrigation sector in terms of pricing water, cost recovery, financial viability and overall sustainability of the surface irrigation system. This study attempts to examine the relevance of the institutional management approaches of France to the Indian context. The institutional framework for setting the price of irrigation water is through negotiation between the management and the user representatives. The important lessons drawn based on the experiences of the French model include the granting of financial autonomy to the water institutions in order to recover operational and maintenance costs, participatory approaches of decentralised management, user involvement in the decision-making process, devolution of small-scale irrigation networks to the users for management and the promotion of effective and viable user associations with access to technical information relating to the use of irrigation technologies.     

SPRINKMOD – pressure and discharge simulation model for pressurized irrigation systems. 1. Model development and description

A computer model was developed to simulate pressure and flow rate distribution along pipes and laterals of pressurized irrigation systems in operation. The software runs in a Windows environment and is capable of simulating irrigation systems having multiple pump stations combined in series and/or in parallel, booster pump stations, parallel pipes and looping pipes. Hand-move, wheel line and center pivot laterals with pressure regulators, one or two drop pipes per outlet and booster pump can be simulated. Leakage can be included in the main pipe network or along the laterals. Lateral inlet pressure can be set to an upper limit to simulate valve closure. Practically any type of nozzle and pump can be simulated since cubic spline functions are used to interpolate values from head-flow rate sets of data. To accomplish these capabilities, algorithms were developed and adapted to convert laterals into a set of head-flow rate data so that a simplified algorithm could be adapted to solve the entire pipe network. A user-friendly interface was designed to allow data for pumps, nozzle and pressure regulators to be interactively entered, edited and analyzed prior to the simulation run. The layout of the irrigation system can be drawn on screen using the mouse. Data can be independently entered and edited for each irrigation system component already drawn in the screen, at any time and in any order. Data for the entire irrigation system are verified at many levels before the simulation is run, to make the model less susceptible to crash. The model proved to be a practical tool for upgrading and designing pressurized irrigation systems. Received: 20 November 1997     

A conceptual model for analysing input–output coefficients in arable farming systems: from diagnosis towards design

Environmental legislation is forcing a rethink about desirable crop production systems. The development of new production systems that meet economic and environmental objectives demands knowledge about which input–output combinations are feasible and optimal in practice. A review of concepts in agronomy and in farm and behavioural economics leads to a conceptual model with a division into production levels and accompanying production restricting factors. The highest production level can be defined by merely agronomic growth factors; the next production level is restricted by a mixture of economic and other agronomic factors. The two lowest levels are further restricted by taking into account the socio-psychological factors. With the production restricting factors of the conceptual model the differences in agronomic efficiency of actual and theoretical input–output combinations will be analysed in order to find out which input–output combinations will be feasible and optimal in practice.     

Optimisation model for water allocation in deficit irrigation systems: II. Application to the Bémbezar irrigation system

In this paper, the proposed optimisation model is applied to optimise water management in the Bembézar system, a small hydrological basin belonging to the Guadalquivir River basin in southern Spain that supplies water to the Bembézar River Irrigation District.In order to apply the model, the irrigation methods and performance in the irrigation district have been analysed through a set of field irrigation evaluations. Cropping patterns, crop productivity and other relevant agronomic and economic data have been collected.The influence of irrigation uniformity and the type of distribution of irrigation water on the crop yields, as well as the relationship between crop yields and irrigation scheduling have been analysed using the proposed model.A deterministic analysis has been carried out in the irrigation district in order to compare optimum water and cropping patterns management with actual ones.In order to account for the randomness of both climatic and water availability variables, a stochastic data generation has been carried out which considers the correlation between these hydrological series. The system is then analysed in a stochastic environment. Several simulations of the optimisation process have been carried out using generated data on climatic and water availability variables.The result of this analysis demonstrates that when only the satisfaction of the internal demands is considered, high quantities of water are allocated to the irrigation districts resulting in low economic benefits per unit of water used and lower irrigation efficiency. This situation has been compared with the solution provided by the hypothesis of a proposed water market in which it is possible to transfer part of the water of the system to other alternative uses at a fixed price. In this second hypothesis, water consumption in the irrigation districts was reduced.     

SPRINKMOD – pressure and discharge simulation model for pressurized irrigation systems. 3. Sensitivity to lateral hydraulic parameters and leakage

A computer model, SPRINKMOD, was tested with field data collected from a simple sprinkler irrigation system in operation. The original data for laterals and the amount and way leakage is considered were modified to evaluate the model sensitivity. The model predicted the pump station flow rate within 2% and the pump station pressure head within 5% with the original data collected. For this irrigation system, no practical effect was observed in the system operating point by changing the lateral pipe characteristics, lateral leakage amount and distribution, lateral pipe roughness and lateral local loss coefficient for flow past a riser outlet. The amount of leakage had more effect on the model simulation of pressure heads than the way leakage was considered, localized or distributed along the laterals. The use of a variable local loss coefficient, K _r, along the 350-m hand-move laterals had a negligible effect on both system operating point and distribution of pressure heads along the laterals. Received: 14 February 1998     

Assessment of the parameters of a mechanistic soil–crop–nitrogen simulation model using historic data of experimental field sites in Belgium

Intensification of the agricultural sector and the increase in quantity and decrease in quality of municipal and industrial wastewater, in particular during the past decades, resulted in many industrial countries, such as Belgium, in a sharp degradation of surface water and groundwater. To control the current degree of contamination and reduce the environmental impact of the agricultural sector, the Flemish government recently introduced a number of regulations aiming at controlling the use of nitrogen fertilisers. To facilitate the implementation and the control of the new regulations, threshold values of allowable doses of organic and inorganic nitrogen fertilisers, and their spreading in time were made soil independent. As the soil physical, chemical and biological response depends on the geohydrology of the site and the past fertilisation practice, fertiliser standards applied on different soil–crop systems result in different leaching patterns.To assess the effect of the soil on the nitrogen leaching, a number of past experimental field trials were analysed using the WAVE model as modelling tool for the reconstruction of the nitrogen dynamics. As a first step in the study, the historic data of the field experiments were used to calibrate and validate the WAVE model. The deterministic calibration and validation of the WAVE model yielded a set of model parameters for the examined soil–crop–fertiliser practice conditions. The bottlenecks in the calibration were the nitrogen mineralisation parameters and the initialisation and subdivision of the soil organic matter over the different organic pools. The model validation, being the second step in the study, revealed the power of the WAVE model to predict the evolution and transformations of nitrogen in the soil profile and the leaching of nitrate at the bottom of the root zone. In a third step, the WAVE model was used in a scenario-analysis exercise to examine the factors effecting the amount of nitrate leached at the bottom of the root zone. This analysis revealed that the nitrate leached out of the soil profile is controlled by the fertiliser practice, the rainfall depth and its distribution, the soil texture, the soil mineralisation capacity and the past fertilisation practice.     

An LP-model to analyse economic and ecological sustainability on Dutch dairy farms: model presentation and application for experimental farm “de Marke”

Farm level modelling can be used to determine how farm management adjustments and environmental policy affect different sustainability indicators. In this paper indicators were included in a dairy farm LP (linear programming)-model to analyse the effects of environmental policy and management measures on economic and ecological sustainability on Dutch dairy farms. For analysing ecological sustainability, seven indicators were included in the model: eutrophication potential, nitrate concentration in groundwater, water use, acidification potential, global warming potential, terrestrial ecotoxicity, and aquatic ecotoxicity. Net farm income was included for measuring economic sustainability. The farm structure of “De Marke” formed the basis for three optimisations: (1) basis situation without environmental policy, (2) situation with Dutch environmental policy for 2004, and (3) situation with farm management measures applied at “De Marke”. The Dutch environmental policy was included to comply with the EC nitrate directive. It resulted in lower fertiliser use and consequently in a decrease in sales of maize. This led to a decrease in net farm income of ca. €2500. Including this policy improved most used ecological indicators (except for ecotoxicity) and showed to be an effective tool to reduce the environmental impact of dairy farming. Adapting the model with farm management measures applied at experimental farm “De Marke” resulted in even better ecological performance compared to the situation with environmental policy. Nonetheless this increase in ecological performance led to a considerably lower net farm income (€14,500).     

Do farmers waste fertilizer? A comparison of ex post optimal nitrogen rates and ex ante recommendations by model, site and year

While there appear to be costs to farmers of over-applying nitrogen, there is evidence in many regions that farmers are applying nitrogen at levels that exceed those suggested by government extension services. A major reason why farmers would apparently waste money by applying more fertilizer than a crop can use is a perception that the general recommendations are not appropriate for their individual situations. In this paper we estimate the economically optimal rates for 7 Ontario sites over multiple years using four yield response functional forms to examine whether the profit-maximizing rates as determined at the end of the growing season (ex post optimal rates) are generally higher than recommended rates due to site, year, or yield response functional form differences. There was no statistical or economic basis for selecting one response model over another suggesting functional form choice or perception is not a reason for over-application. However, there was a great deal of variability found between the actual optimal rate for the season and the ex ante recommended rate, which is constant across seasons for a given site. While the recommended rate is higher than the maximum economic rate of nitrogen (MERN) on the majority of sites examined, the distribution is skewed due to a few large differences. When the recommended rate is lower than the ex post MERN in a given year, it tends to occur on less productive sites and is much lower. The pay-off function to alternative nitrogen rates is generally flat as the difference between the MERN and recommended was less than $10/ha on approximately one-third of the trials but there are large differences in the good years on less productive sites. Thus, the decision to apply more than average to take advantage of the good years is appropriate since the cost of over-application is low compared to the cost of under-application. While the pay off to soil testing for nitrogen and consequently variable rate application technology is brought into question, there appears to be significant value to information on the growing conditions for the upcoming season particularly on less productive sites. Another implication of the study is the need to have a sufficient range of application rates in nitrogen field trials for accurate estimation of the underlying response function.     

Using the DRAINMOD-N model to study effects of drainage system design and management on crop productivity,profitability and NO3–N losses in drainage water

The environmental impacts of agricultural drainage have become a critical issue. There is a need to design and manage drainage and related water table control systems to satisfy both crop production and water quality objectives. The model DRAINMOD-N was used to study long-term effects of drainage system design and management on crop production, profitability, and nitrogen losses in two poorly drained soils typical of eastern North Carolina (NC), USA. Simulations were conducted for a 20-yr period (1971–1990) of continuous corn production at Plymouth, NC. The design scenarios evaluated consisted of three drain depths (0.75, 1.0, and 1.25 m), ten drain spacings (10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 80, and 100 m), and two surface conditions (0.5 and 2.5 cm depressional storage). The management treatments included conventional drainage, controlled drainage during the summer season and controlled drainage during both the summer and winter seasons. Maximum profits for both soils were predicted for a 1.25 m drain depth and poor surface drainage (2.5 cm depressional storage). The optimum spacings were 40 and 20 m for the Portsmouth and Tomotley soils, respectively. These systems however would not be optimum from the water quality perspective. If the water quality objective is of equal importance to the productivity objective, the drainage systems need to be designed and managed to reduce NO₃–N losses while still providing an acceptable profit from the crop. Simulated results showed NO₃–N losses can be substantially reduced by decreasing drain depth, improving surface drainage, and using controlled drainage. Within this context, NO₃–N losses can be reduced by providing only the minimum subsurface drainage intensity required for production, by designing drainage systems to fit soil properties, and by using controlled drainage during periods when maximum drainage is not needed for production. The simulation results have demonstrated the applicability of DRAINMOD-N for quantifying effects of drainage design and management combinations on profits from agricultural crops and on losses of NO₃–N to the environment for specific crop, soil and climatic conditions. Thus, the model can be used to guide design and management decisions for satisfying both productivity and environmental objectives and assessing the costs and benefits of alternative choices to each set of objectives.