Surge Irrigation
Surface irrigation is not new technology, but through research and the incorporation of some inventive measures, advances in this area have provided the needed responses to make this type of irrigation increasingly appealing. Not only is water quality a major concern, but current farmers must now monitor water quality and provide adequate crop protection measures to insure a good yield. Water availability is affected by falling water tables, droughts and stressed by the increasing water demand of growing urban populations (Moody 1993). Likewise, local and federal governments create strict water utilization laws, limiting chemical concentrations of particular substances in surface waters throughout the nation. In addition to adhering to the aforementioned tasks, irrigators must correctly apply supplemental water such that the crop’s needs are also met without “over-application”.
The primary goals of any irrigation system are to minimize deep percolation of water and replenish soil water in the root zone along the entire field (Goldhammer 1987). Thus, to achieve effective water management, an irrigator should utilize the least amount of water needed to sustain profitable yield amounts. In addition, the major concerns of managing irrigation water are controlling runoff, decreasing deep percolation, providing sufficient drainage, and limiting energy and the associated labor costs.
For a small or medium sized operation with limited resources, labor and maintenance costs are important factors when selecting an irrigation system. A study conducted by Dr. Stephen H. Amosson (1995) compared six alternative irrigation systems (gated pipe, surge flow, side roll, high pressure pivot, low pressur...
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...s Department of the Interior.
Goldhammer, D.A., M.H. Alemi and R.C. Phene (1987) Surge vs. Continuous-Flow Irrigation. California Agriculture, September-October 1987.
Hill, R.W. and G. Stringham (1994) Surge Flow Irrigation: Automatic Surface Irrigation Demonstration for Summer Onion Tour. Cooperative Extension Service & Biological and Irrigation Engineering Department, Utah State University
Moody, V. (1993) The Benefits of Surge. Irrigation Journal, March 1993.
New, Leon (1995) Opportunities to Maximize the Utilization of Waters by Irrigators. Texas Agricultural Extension Service.
Varlev, I., Z. Popova, I. Gospodinov (1998) Furrow Surge Irrigation as a Water Saving Technique. Water and the Environment: Innovation in Irrigation and Drainage, 1st Inter-regional Conference Proceedings, Lisbon, Portugal, September 1998, pp-131-139.
Ashton, John. "KENEDY, MIFFLIN." 15 June 2010. Handbook of Texas Online. Web. 5 May 2014. .
The negative aspects of Glen Canyon Dam greatly exceed the positive aspects. The dam’s hydroelectric power supply is only three percent of the total power used by the six states that are served by the facility. There is a surplus of power on the Colorado Plateau and with more and more power-plants being created in the western hemisphere, Glen Canyon Dam’s power is not needed (Living Rivers: What about the hydroelectric loss). Although the ‘lake’ contains twenty seven million acre feet of water, one and a half million acre feet of water are lost yearly due to evaporation and seepage into the sandstone banks surrounding the ‘lake’ (Living Rivers: What about the water supply?). The loss of that much “water represents millions, even billions of dollars” (Farmer 183). If the government were to employ more water efficient irrigation practices, as much as five million acre feet of water per year could be saved.
The Midwestern United States has experienced flooding for a long time now, but recently the annual precipitation has been far greater than before. Precipitation has increased 37 percent since 1958 (Jeff Spross). However a few major floods have been recorded dating back to 1913. In 1913 torrential rainfall hit Indiana and Ohio. The ground was greatly damaged from the flood causing difficult agricultural years for many years after the flood. Another flood hit a large portion of the Midwest region including the eastern Dakotas, Wisconsin, Kansas, and Indiana in 1993. Recovery costs for the Great Flood exceeded $4.2 billion. Like the flood in 1913 agriculture was affected for many years hurting the economy of the Midwest. A more recent disastrous flood hit mainly Iowa in 2008. After the flood in 2008 agriculture again took a hard hit and since the government ...
Landscaping techniques, such as drip irrigation and xeriscaping can reduce California's use of water immensely. Eighty Percent of the state’s developed water supply is used on agriculture, but much of that eighty percent is wasted because of sprinkler systems. The water sprayed from sprinkler systems often evaporates, and more water is wasted to water the plants. A drip system is specifically placed at each plant and lets the water seep into the roots, so no water can be wasted through evaporation. This would require less water to be used on plants, because more is actually reaching the roots, saving the rest of the water for California. Xeriscaping is a type of “dry landscaping.” This means that materials and plants, such as native plants, succulents, gravel, and water flowers are used to design a beautiful outdoor space, instead of using grass which consumes an average of about fifty-seven inches of rain per year. Grass needs to be watered frequently, using up California’s water supply, but a dry landscape would use little to no water, benefiting California. Farmers and Homeowners can employ these landscaping techniques to reduce the use of California...
As Jensen points out, farming and industry accounts for the vast majority of total water usage in the world (477). The increasingly scarce resource is a necessary ingredient when growing food. Technology continuously improves to make it easier for farmers to grow crops while using less water. Scientists at the University of Georgia utilize what they term “variable rate irrigation” to let farmers automate the current systems of irrigation to water only the crops that need it (Gies). This is an example of retrofitting current farms, but there is a new way of farming coming to cities that reuses practically all of its water and stakes claim much less acreage in the process. The future of agriculture belongs to vertical and urban farming. These types of farms reduce the use of water, chemicals (such as pesticides, herbicides and fungicides), soil and space (The Economist). These farms are so cutting edge that they are mostly in the experimental stages. Firms like Famgro farms are testing “stackable” farming systems that can scale with demand, even further reducing waste. Famgro’s stackable farms are ideal for cityscapes where land is at a premium; furthermore, reaping the added benefit of being in close proximity to the customers that they serve. Customers will enjoy high quality, fresh produce at only a slightly
The essential use of irrigation in Australian Vineyards to maximize the productivity of vines has the detrimental effect on the surrounding waterways my contributing to water pollution. The use of irrigation in Australia has become a primary
Farmers and ranchers who own water rights should have their water amount filled earlier in order to facilitate themselves with the proper amount of water. They should not be restricted to a smaller prearranged amount of water each year. Water us...
Texas, with its abundances of natural resources, is facing a new demon, one that doesn’t even seem possible, a shortage of water. Water, without it nothing can survive. Texas is the second largest state for landmass in the nation and ninth for water square miles. Within the borders of Texas are more than 100 lakes, 14 major rivers, and 23 aquifers, so why has water become such an important issue for the state? Politicians and conservationists all agree that without a new working water plan, the state could be facing one of the most damaging environmental disasters they have ever seen. The issues that shape the states positions are population growth, current drought conditions, and who actually owns the water.
Most of water consumed in China is not rationally used. The cause which intensifies the water shortage in China is water inefficient use. For instance, 65%-70% of Chinese water usage is spent on agricultural needs, but more than half of this amount evaporates percolates and loses (Roberts 2009). Besides, majority of another 20%-25% which is occupied by China’s industry is not recycled (Brown 2008a, 16; Roberts 2009). Obviously, improving water distribution technologies and management quality can be one of the options to reduce the water scarcity in China. There are many different methods of improving the water distribution efficiency. Firstly, irrigation technologies should be improved. Farmers in China may use drip and shrink irrigation methods instead of traditional “surface” ones such as furrow and flood irrigation. Drip irrigation method is used mostly in arid and semi-arid zones and it increases the efficiency of irrigation by transporting the water directly to the roots of irrigated plant. The emitters sprinkle the soil under the roots with water which is introduced to the plant by pipes, diminishing water evaporation, deep percolation and leak. In contrast, fur...
The problem of water shortage is one of the major limiting factors in food production and agriculture development in the arid and semi arid regions. Reclaimed water is one of the most significant available water resources that shall be consumed in agriculture and urban landscape maintenance. In order to investigate the impact of water quality and its application method on olive trees this experiment was carried out during 2010-2012 in the semiarid central part of Iran on young olive trees. The trees were irrigated by a new subsurface-leaky irrigation (SLI) system and surface irrigation in line with irrigation with recycle and clean water for 24 months. The results revealed that SLI system could enhance trees growth, leaf area, Fv/Fm and photosynthesis by68, 26, 4 and 42% respectively, although it decreased leaves soluble sugars (47%). In addition, irrigating trees by SLI system using reclaimed water could increase N and Mg uptake 138 and 8% respectively. Plants irrigated with RW showed improved growth (42%) leaf area26% and photosynthesis 23.4% compared with CL water. Furthermore Mg, Na, K, P and N surprisingly increase 12, 59, 30, 7, and 92 % respectively in leaf tissue in application recycle water. In overall, this experiment showed that recycled water could be a favorable resource for olive trees irrigation and SLI irrigation system was more efficient in irrigation in this research.
For about five years California has experienced above average temperatures and a lack of rain. This lack of rain and snowfall has caused California to become increasingly dry, starting arguments over whose right to water is more important and who needs to be more mindful with their use of water. Farming in California truly began during the gold rush when water was redirected to land where food was grown for those looking for gold (Siegler, 2015). The farmers that have stayed on that land now have senior water rights (“Water wars”, 2015). Farmers that settled their land before 1914 are those with senior water rights (Terrell, 2015). Governor Jerry Brown has called for a cut in water use by one-quarter percent to people living
Water that has changed throughout the hydrologic process travels from the irrigation treatment and enters into the aquifers. First...
This is because only a small part of the population, particularly in developing countries, have access to water of acceptable quality. It is estimated that in some countries only 20% of the rural population has water of satisfactory quality. Based on these statistics, it is clear the urgent need for awareness about caring for water use. Almost without realizing it, we are seriously jeopardizing this essential resource, not for us but for our children's children and their generations, aware that in other parts o...
Sandra Postel, on the other hand, has a different opinion than Danielle’s. She proposed that “without increasing water productivity in irrigation, major food-producing regions will not have enough water to sustain crop production”.
Rogers, Peter. 2008. "Facing the Freshwater CRISIS. (Cover story)." Scientific American 299, no. 2: 46-53. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed November 4, 2010).