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Assessment of water delivery efficiency in irrigation canals using performance indicators

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Abstract

Agricultural water is delivered by open irrigation canals in system of reservoirs with a widespread distribution in South Korea. Traditional irrigation management problems include water distribution systems with less capacity than the peak demand, irregular delivery rates, and low irrigation efficiency and uniformity. It is necessary to strategically compare the estimated irrigation demands with the actual water supplies for decision making in order to maintain the water supply according to the demand. Accurate measurement and monitoring of water distribution systems is essential in order to solve the problems of water efficiency and availability. Auto water level gauges installed at the head and tail sections of each irrigation canal in the Dongjin River were used to measure the discharge during irrigation periods. In this study, we introduced an approach to assess the water delivery performance indicators of the open irrigation canals, which is essential for identifying the key issues for water management improvement. The irrigation efficiencies according to the water delivery performance indicators were measured with an automatic water gauge in the irrigation canals and were calculated from the spatial and temporal distribution of the water supply for the lack of planning in water delivery. The calculated performance indicators are useful to understand the irrigator behavior and general irrigation trends. Analysis of the results yielded insights into possible improvement methods in order to develop water management policies that enable irrigation planners to improve the temporal uniformity and equity in the water distribution.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (2013R1A6A3A03019009), and Rural Research Institute of Korea Rural Community Corporation by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of NRF or any of its sub-agencies.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Drought Mitigation Center, School of Natural Resources, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, USA

    Won-Ho Nam

  2. USDA-ARS Environmental Microbial and Food Safety Laboratory, Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, Beltsville, MD, USA

    Eun-Mi Hong

  3. Department of Rural Systems Engineering, Research Institute for Agriculture and Life Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Jin-Yong Choi

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  1. Won-Ho Nam
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  2. Eun-Mi Hong
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  3. Jin-Yong Choi
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Correspondence to Eun-Mi Hong.

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Communicated by E. Fereres.

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Nam, WH., Hong, EM. & Choi, JY. Assessment of water delivery efficiency in irrigation canals using performance indicators. Irrig Sci 34, 129–143 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00271-016-0488-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00271-016-0488-6

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