Development of an integrated computational tool to improve performance of irrigation districts

Abstract

Nowadays irrigation district managers require several tools to assess irrigation networks' performance such as hydraulic models, geographic information systems (GIS) or decision support systems (DSS) which are available but as independent elements. Thus, simplifying the use of these tools by means of applications that integrate all these components would be helpful for irrigation district managers. In this paper, a computer tool combining a GIS, a hydraulic model and performance indicators (PIs) has been developed creating a database to deal with most information required in an irritation district. MapObjects Java Edition was used for the GIS integration and EPANET calculation module for the hydraulic modeling. This tool enables the study of the network performance, taking into account real measures (data from the remote control system) and simulated measures (obtained when running the hydraulic model) which are stored in a database and used to calculate different indicators that can be represented in the GIS. The PIs calculated with this tool give important information regarding the network response to different conditions, malfunction problems and failures in supply. Therefore, this tool is also useful to study the effects of improvements and the quality of service provided to farmers. © IWA Publishing 2012.