Control in Irrigation Canals

Content-
 Background

 Literature Review

 Indian Scenario & Advantages of Automation

 Methodology
Basic Definitions-
 Canal system operation-Water transfer from its source to points of diversion for irrigation, municipal and
industrial, fish and wildlife, and drainage purposes.

 Automation- it is defined as, a procedure or method used to regulate a system by mechanical or electronic
equipment that takes the place of human observation, effort, and decision; the condition of being
automatically controlled.

 Thus, Canal automation is defined as the implementation of a control system that upgrades the
conventional method of canal system operation.

• Control system-An arrangement of electronic, electrical. and mechanical components that commands or
directs the regulation of a canal system.

• Upgrades-Provides a better match between the canal system delivery capabilities and the water users'
demands. As a result, improved response and system efficiency is achieved beyond what could be
accomplished by the conventional method of operation.
 Conventional method-Canal system control on site by operations personnel (ditch rider and water master).
Labour saving devices and machinery may be used to assist in the control of the canal facilities. The ditch rider is
responsible for controlling the canal system onsite based upon the flow schedule established by the water master at
the central headquarters. The water master is responsible for overall operation.

Conventional operation involves the following basic procedure :-

I. orders are submitted by the water users;

II. a water schedule is formulated;

III. flow changes are made at the head of the canal to meet the water schedule;

IV. And the canal is operated manually to transfer these changes downstream, making adjustments at the canal-side
turnouts and canal check structures en route.
Weakness of conventional operation :-
 the inevitable discrepancy between forecast and actual delivery flows.

 there will be always inaccuracies in checking the flow and the amount of water stored in the canal pools.
Since the canal system is not operated to react to actual demand, any such errors are transferred downstream.
The sum of all operational errors will accumulate at the far end of the canal. Tail-end water users will often
suffer from too much or too little water.

 to prevent shortages of water at the downstream end, excess water must be supplied at the headwork. Most
of the time, this excess ends up being wasted near the downstream end of the system. The typical wastage in
a conventionally operated canal system is about 5 to 10 percent of the total flow.
Need For Such Automation –

 Irrigation is the largest water user in the World, using up to 85% of the available water in the developing
countries. In the near future, irrigation will have to share the water with industrial and urban water users and to
pay the same price for this scarce natural resource.
 The Agriculture must be prepared for this announced competition, namely developing and implementing
intelligent management and operation of the irrigation systems, in order to achieve higher water savings and
better water delivery service, within a short period of time.
 Due to technical and financial reasons, the large water conveyance and delivery systems are usually open-
channel systems. The canal dynamics is very complex and difficult to control, especially if there is a demand-
oriented-operation.
 The main purpose of the canal control is to optimize the water supply in order to match the expected or aleatory
water demands at the off takes level. Basically, there are two canal control logics – upstream control and
downstream control – respectively if the information about the real state of the hydraulics system needed by the
control system arrives from upstream or downstream
Upstream Control-
 In a system operated with upstream control, water is released from the intake according to the prediction of
water demand in the system.
 The adjustment of each gate is based on the information upstream from it.
 Due to the difficulty of predicting precisely the actual water demand, the water users at the downstream end
of the system often receive either excessive or insufficient water.
 Also the time taken for water to reach from the most upstream end to the point of its requirement might be
large.
Downstream Control-
 Water is released in response to the actual water withdrawal from the system.
 The adjustment of each gate is based on the information downstream from it.
 Wastage of water is avoided as whatever amount is required is only extracted.
 Another advantage of this type of control is that users can take water whenever they need it.
Modernization of Irrigation system operational management by way
of Canal Automation-ADVANTAGES-

The advantages of automation are not limited to savings in operation cost and in
water. It also has the following advantages –
 It also alleviates the risk of waterlogging and salinization
 A further advantage is that it increases the reliability and accuracy of water
distribution. This contributes to the establishment of confidence between the
operating authority and the farmers.
 With automation, it may also be possible to accurately know the volume of
water delivered to individuals or groups of farmers. This makes possible the
introduction of volumetric water charges.
 This approach is a useful tool for encouraging farmers to optimize the use of
limited water allocations and to increase productivity.
Indian Scenario-
 In spite of substantial growth in irrigated agriculture and consequent agricultural productivity
over the years, irrigation systems in India are still facing many problems. The root cause of the
poor performance of our irrigation systems may be the lack of scientific approach to their
management. On most command areas served by a canal, water is poorly distributed over area
and time.
 A common shortcoming is that tail-end users are not getting water or are getting insufficient and
unreliable water. Conversely, head-end users often get too much water, either because they have
no choice or deliberately, taking water when they can and often more than needed.
 Low irrigation efficiency is also attributed to changes in cropping patterns. In many cases, the
cropping pattern actually adopted by the farmers is very different from the designed cropping
pattern because it is mostly influenced by market forces, farmers' preferences, reliability of water
supply and other factors.
 Most farmers still irrigate the way their forefathers did thousands of years ago by flooding or
channelling water through parallel furrows.
 Methodology-
 St. Venant equations
 Continuity equation
Q A
 0
x t

 Momentum Equation
1 Q 1   Q 2  y
    g  g ( So  S f )  0
A t A x  A  x

 Preissmann scheme
 Feedback mechanism
THANK YOU!