Technical manual for assessing hotspots in channel and piped irrigation systems

Akhtar Abbas, Tariq Masud, Shahbaz Khan, Muhammad Asghar, Muhammad Hafeez, Munir Ahmad Hanjra, Kumar Narayan, Richard Pillow

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Abstract

This Technical Manual for Assessing Hotspots in Channel and Piped Irrigation Systemshas been developed by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial ResearchOrganisation (CSIRO) as a key component of the Irrigation Infrastructure HotspotsAssessment project (Hotspots project) under the 'Sustainable Rural Water Use andInfrastructure' element of Australian Government 'Water for the Future' program.The objective of the Hotspots project is to identify areas in an irrigation supply systemwhere localised significant water losses are occurring, through evaporation, seepage,leakage and operational components.This technical manual follows on from a series of workshops that were organised by theCSIRO, in collaboration with the International Centre of Water for Food Security atCharles Sturt University. A separate paper entitled Project Report: Development of theTechnical Manual for Assessing Hotspots in Channel and Piped Irrigation Systemsdetails this process.The technical manual is designed for irrigation water providers and consultants, to helpthem evaluate water losses and gains in open-channel irrigation delivery systems, aswell as in piped irrigation delivery systems.This technical manual:· is modular in nature;· details the sequence of technologies required for assessing hotspots, in bothdata-rich and data-poor settings;· details how the recommended technology should be used (calibration andassociated Australian or International Standard) and the subsequent accuracy ofthose technologies; and,· provides a step-by-step standardised procedure for using the given technologies.The technical manual can be used to:· identify least-cost system analysis techniques (from diagnostic to detailedmeasurements) for identifying and quantifying sources of water loss and potentialsavings; and,· spatially prioritise hotspot assessments at subsystem level that have been doneusingdifferent techniques, and identifying what further database and analysis needto be done.This manual includes many of the proven methods trialled in Australia and overseas.Water balances can be 'top-down' or 'bottom-up', depending on the setting. The'top-down' water balance starts at the irrigation system level and disaggregatesdifferent components of flows to a lower level of detail only if necessitated by thepurpose of the project. The 'bottom-up' water balance starts with the description of thelower level processes (for example crop water balance or channel seepage) and scalesup or aggregates these processes to the irrigation system level to develop a systemwater balance.The technical manual can be used to evaluate water losses and gains for open-channelirrigation systems and piped irrigation systems, in both data-rich and data-poor settings.A whole-of-irrigation-system approach has been taken to provide insights into possiblereal water savings, including distinguishing between apparent and real losses andgains.
Original languageEnglish
Place of PublicationCanberra, Australia
PublisherCSIRO Publishing
Number of pages73
Publication statusPublished - 2008

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