Revitalizing a fertile plain: A case study in simulation and systems analysis of saline and waterlogged areas

Abstract

This paper describes the application of systems analysis and digital computer simulation to the control of waterlogging and salinity in West Pakistan. The details of the project are not nearly so important here as the nature of the systems approach and the demonstration of digital computer applicability to civil engineering problems. The history of waterlogging and salinity of agricultural lands in West Pakistan is the by‐product of a truly remarkable system of crop irrigation which has been employed in increasing intensity over a period of some 3000 years. During the early part of this century British hydraulic engineers initiated the barrage system of irrigation and began to divert large quantities of water from the mighty Indus River and the five great tributaries that drain the Punjab region of the subcontinent. The economic and technologic aspects of the remedy, a well field of truly heroic proportions, are discussed; the role of the digital computer is seen to be essential to the concept and thrust of an operations research solution.