Abstract
The viability and sustainability of crop production is currently threatened by increasing water scarcity. Water scarcity problems can be addressed through improved water productivity and the options usually presumed in this context are efficient water use and conversion of surface irrigation to pressurised systems. By replacing furrow irrigation with drip or centre pivot systems, the water efficiency can be improved by up to 30% to 45%. However, the installation and application of pumps and pipes, and the associated fuels needed for these alternatives increase energy consumption. A balance between the improvement in water use and the potential increase in energy consumption is required. When surface water is used, pressurised irrigation systems increase energy consumption substantially, by between 65% to 75%, and produce greenhouse gas emissions around 1.75 times higher than that of gravity based irrigation systems so their use should be carefully planned keeping in view adverse impact of carbon emissions on the environment and threat of increasing energy prices. With gravity-fed surface irrigation methods, the energy consumption is assumed to be negligible. This study has shown that a novel real-time infiltration model REIP has enabled implementation of real-time optimisation and gravity fed surface irrigation with real-time optimisation has potential to bring significant improvements in irrigation performance along with substantial water savings of 2.92 ML/ha which is equivalent to that given by pressurised systems. The real-time optimisation and control thus offers a modern, environment friendly and water efficient system with close to zero increase in energy consumption and minimal greenhouse gas emissions.
Highlights
Worldwide as well as in Australia, irrigated agriculture is the largest water user, and there is pressure on irrigators to improve water use efficiency as other sectors compete for water
Water scarcity problems can be addressed through improved water productivity and the options usually presumed in this context are efficient water use and conversion of surface irrigation to pressurised systems
When surface water is used, pressurised irrigation systems increase energy consumption substantially, by between 65% to 75%, and produce greenhouse gas emissions around 1.75 times higher than that of gravity based irrigation systems so their use should be carefully planned keeping in view adverse impact of carbon emissions on the environment and threat of increasing energy prices
Summary
Worldwide as well as in Australia, irrigated agriculture is the largest water user, and there is pressure on irrigators to improve water use efficiency as other sectors compete for water. Amongst gravity-fed irrigation methods, furrow irrigation is the most commonly used method for irrigating crops and pastures in northern Australia and around the world, the energy consumption in surface water resourced regions is assumed to be negligible, but this method is generally perceived to be low efficient method of irrigating crops, bound by inherent characteristics and traditional practices to wasting much of the water applied [10]. It is not the fault of method but it is the lack of proper management and a limited capability to predict the soil infiltration characteristic. It will be evident that Real-time optimisation and control of surface irrigation when applied in conjunction with automation offers a modern environment friendly, labour and water efficient system with close to zero energy consumption and minimal GHG emissions
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