Automated irrigation system

Abstract

A multimillion-dollar irrigation project in Arizona has become a powerful tool in the fight to conserve diminishing ground-water supplies beneath a sprawling desert turned burgeonong agricultural area. Since 1987, this irrigation system has been delivering water to some areas south of Phoenix. An ultimate annual infusion of up to 1.5 million acre-ft of surface water, purchased from the Central Arizona Project (CAP), is already conserving ground water in the area. The irrigation system consists of hundreds of miles of newly built concrete canals and aqueducts winding through some 250,000 acres of farmland under the jurisdiction of three irrigation and drainage districts. A $1.2 million DataCommand telemetry system that will monitor and intelligently control water levels and automatically operate control gates on all canals in two of the districts. These and other aspects of the subject are discussed.