Management and performance improvement of irrigation canals in water‐scarce conditions considering hydraulic drawbacks: A case study for the Eastern Aghili secondary canal, Iran

Abstract

AbstractIrrigation networks suffer from conventional water management in water‐scarce conditions. Most previous studies have concentrated on water allocation, paying little attention to hydraulic drawbacks. In this study, four water distribution scenarios for managing scarce water conditions are defined and evaluated, with consideration of their hydraulic drawbacks. In the first scenario, the water shortage is evenly distributed among all outlets. In the second scenario, a kind of prioritization of the outlets is considered. A time division is considered for the other two scenarios. In the third scenario, one half of the outlets receive complete delivery, and the other receive reduced water in the first period and perform the same operation in reverse in the second period. In the fourth scenario, half of the outlets receive twice the amount of required water, while the other half is closed in the first period. In the second period, the water delivery is carried out in reverse. The effect of four scenarios in improving water distribution in 40% water scarcity conditions is such that scenarios 4, 3, 2 and 1 have the most positive effect, in that order. The results show that with increasing water scarcity, time division scenarios have a greater impact on performance improvement.