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Approach to the evaluation of undependable delivery of water in irrigation schemes

Abstract:

The method developed in this study quantifies the undependable delivery of water with respect to the overall irrigation efficiency in irrigation schemes. It shows how well operation performance matches required water delivery and reflects the combined effect of reliability and pbkp_redictability. The approach has the possibility to take into account deficit and excess water, both as results of undependable delivery. Appropriate weighting factors can be considered for deficit and excess in each scheme. The method has the flexibility to use available data for crop water requirement and supply water according to the time base in which the scheme is scheduled. The approach reveals that, without taking into consideration the joint effects of delivery schedule and operation performance and without improving the delivery schedule, any increase in efficiency is not worthwhile. Application of the approach to the Doroodzan Irrigation System in Iran shows that for the agricultural year 1995-96, without improving water delivery schedule, there will be no significant benefit from an increase in the overall efficiency in the range of 0.35 to 0.45. This was obtained on the basis of monthly evaluation and equal weighting factors for deficit and excess water.