Determination of Residential Irrigation Water Use in Florida

Abstract

Residential irrigation water use is a large component of total wate r use in Florida. With one of the largest state populations in the U.S. that is rapidly growing, competition between urban, agricultural, and other water users is increasing. This project measured residential irrigation water use and irrigation system unif ormities in central Florida. Three treatments were established as follows: typical irrigation practices (T1), irrigation based on historical evapotranspiration (T2), and water wise landscape plus irrigation designed to minimize water use (T3). T1 homes av eraged 143 mm of irrigation per month in 2003 while T2 and T3 averaged 103 and 74 mm, respectively. This corresponds to a 28 and 48% reduction in irrigation water use compared to the typical practices, respectively. Distribution uniformity (DUlq) of homes tested averaged 0.40-0.50 which was statistically lower than irrigation heads tested under controlled conditions and also lower than industry standards. The preliminary results indicate that design for uniform application of water is d ifficult in small n on-uniform areas of residential yards with current commercially available equipment and that irrigation water use can be reduced by proper scheduling and with landscapes that are designed to minimize irrigation.