Estimating Life Cycle Cost of Improved Field Irrigation Canal

Abstract

The globe is facing an increase in water demand associated with an increase in the world population especially in developing countries. The increasing population urges an additional agricultural land and irrigation water. Traditional system of irrigation water supplier is open canals which allow a high percentage of water dissipation and evaporation. This paper presents a new approach to evaluate design alternatives of Improved Field Irrigation Canals (IFIC) using Life Cycle Cost (LCC) methods. LCC is a methodology for calculating the total cost of a system from inception to disposal taking into account the time value of money. The main objective of this paper is using LCC to evaluate irrigation improvement canals to save water and increase agricultural production. Four methods such: i) Net Present Value (NPV); ii) Benefit/Cost ratio (BCR); iii) Internal Rate of Return (IRR), and iv) Pay Back Period (PBP) are used to compare between three IFIC design alternatives. These alternatives are i) pipeline with one pump at canal head, ii) pipeline with one pump at the head and one pump at the middle, and iii) lined open canal and compared to the reference case; i.e. open canal. Results show that the best economic alternative for IFIC is pipeline with one pump at the intake of the canal.