Abstract
The Mae Lao Irrigation Scheme is one of the largest irrigation projects in Northern Thailand. According to the field reconnaissance, water shortage usually occurs during the dry season. And it is very difficult to equally distribute available water to the paddy fields from the upstream to the downstream parts of the system. To understand and identify the causes of the problems, the measurement of water level and flow rate along all canals may be effective. However, it is not easy to achieve this in such a large-scale irrigation system. Thus, the numerical simulation becomes the second option. The objective of this study is to identify and quantify the real water shortage causes by developing an Unsteady Irrigation Water Distribution and Consumption model which can simulate the water movement and consumption in the whole irrigation system. The beneficial area of the right main canal is modeled based on the physical aspect of the system. The components of the model consist of canal networks, control structures, and paddy fields. A canal is divided into several portions called reach. The Saint-Venant equations are applied to describe the unsteady water movement in each reach. Flow movement at the control structure is expressed by the boundary condition. The paddy fields are modeled to make paddy block and connected to each reach. The water consumption in each paddy block is estimated by Paddy Tank model. The numerical model is successfully developed showing the ability to simulate the water movement and consumption properties in this irrigation system.
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Acknowledgments
The research described in this paper is supported by funds of the Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology, Japan Science and Technology CREST-JST. We sincerely thank the staff of the Mae Lao Operation and Maintenance Project, Chiang Rai, Thailand, for their assistance during the field reconnaissance and data collection. The author gratefully acknowledges the useful comments of all members of the Water System Engineering Laboratory’s Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology. Especially, the previous studies were done by Ms. Yuki Okubo and Mr. Shuji Uratani.
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Wongtragoon, U., Kubo, N. & Tanji, H. Performance diagnosis of Mae Lao Irrigation Scheme in Thailand (I) Development of Unsteady Irrigation Water Distribution and Consumption model. Paddy Water Environ 8, 1–13 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10333-009-0169-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10333-009-0169-7