Class Notes
of
Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
(CE 654)
for
B.E. Civil III/II
Prepared by: Er. Janap Ghimire
Er. Janap Ghimire 1
Chapter 2:
Irrigation Water Requirements
Continue…
Er. Janap Ghimire 2
2.3 Operational water requirements
Operational water requirement is the water used for land preparation,
percolation losses in flooded paddy fields. For irrigation water
requirement, it must be supplied in addition to the crop water
requirement.
Field water requirement:
• It is the sum of crop water requirement and the Operational water
requirement.
Consumptive Irrigation Requirement (CIR)
• Consumptive irrigation requirement is defined as the amount of
irrigation water that is required to meet the evapo-transpiration needs
of the crop during its full growth.
Therefore, CIR = Cu - Re
where Cu is the consumptive use of water.
Re is effective rainfall.
Er. Janap Ghimire 3
2.4 Water losses due to seepage and evaporation
A large portion of the water diverted into irrigation channels is lost
in transit, This loss is composed of five parts: (a) leakage (b) waste
(c) evaporation (d) transpiration, and (e) seepage.
Seepage :
• Seepage is the process by which a liquid leaks through a porous
substance.
• It has been estimated that, generally, 30 percent of all water
diverted for irrigation is lost by seepage.
• Canal lining is a system that can reduce network seepage losses.
Er. Janap Ghimire 4
The seepage losses depend upon the following factors :
• Type of seepage. i.e, whether ‘percolation’ or ‘absorption’ Soil
permeability.
• The condition of the canal: the seepage through a silted canal is
less than that from a new canal.
• Amount of silt carried by the canal: the more the silt, lesser are
the losses.
• Velocity of canal water: the more the velocity, the lesser will be
the losses.
• Cross-section of the canal and its wetted perimeter.
Er. Janap Ghimire 5
Evaporation
• Evaporation is a type of vaporization that occurs on
the surface of a liquid as it changes into the gas phase.
• Evaporation of water occurs when the surface of the liquid is
exposed, allowing molecules to escape and form water vapor.
Factors influencing the rate of evaporation
• Flow rate of air
• Inter-molecular forces
• Pressure
• Surface area
• Temperature
Er. Janap Ghimire 6
2.5 Effective Rainfall (Re)
• Effective rainfall is that part of the precipitation falling during
the growing period of a crop that is available to meet the evapo-
transpiration needs of the crop.
• Effective rainfall is the portion of reliable rainfall that
contributes to meeting the water requirement of the crop. It is
generally taken as the 80% reliable rainfall multiplied by
suitable factor.
• P-eff = f* P(80%)
f=0.70 for upland crops
f=0 if p(80%) <5 mm
f = .85 if 5mm < p(80%) < 100mm
f = .70 if p(80%) > 100mm
Er. Janap Ghimire 7
2.6 Net irrigation water requirement (NIR) :
• It is the amount of water obtained after deducting the
Effective rainfall from the Field water requirement.
• NIR = Cu - Re + water lest in deep percolation for the
purpose of leaching etc.
Er. Janap Ghimire 8
• Gross irrigation water requirement, commonly said as
irrigation water requirement, is the amount of water needed
at the diversion intake.
• Irrigation system while conveying water losses water in the
form of seepage, spillage and evaporation.
From the intake to the field application, water irrigation
system has different efficiencies in its different component.
• It has field application efficiency (E- field), on- farm
distribution channel efficiency (E-farm), and the main canal
efficiency (E-main).
• Gross irrigation water requirement (I-gross)= NIR/ (E-
field*E-farm*E-main).
Er. Janap Ghimire 9
Field Irrigation Requirement (FIR)
• Field irrigation requirement is the amount of water required to
meet ‘net irrigation requirements’ plus the water lost in
percolation in the field water courses, field channels and in field
applications of water. If ɳa is water application efficiency, we
have
FIR = NIR/ ɳ a
Gross irrigation Requirement (GIR)
• Gross irrigation requirement is the sum of water required to
satisfy the field irrigation requirement and the water lost as
conveyance losses in distributaries up to the field. If , ᶯc is the
water conveyance efficiency, we have
GIR = FIR/ ɳ c
Er. Janap Ghimire 10
2.7 Soil-Moisture-Irrigation Relationship
Er. Janap Ghimire 11
• The water below the water table is known as ground water and
above the water table as soil-moisture.
• Extending down from the ground surface, is the soil zone or the
root zone, which is defined as being the depth of overburden
that is penetrated by the roots of vegetation.
• This zone is the most important from irrigation point of view,
because it is this zone, from which the plants do take their water
supplies.
• When water falls over the ground, a part of it gets absorbed in
this root zone, and the rest flows downward under the action of
gravity and is called gravity water.
Er. Janap Ghimire 12
Readily available moisture: It is that portion of the available moisture
which is most easily extracted by the plants, and is approximately 75 to
80% of the available moisture.
Soil-moisture deficiency: The water required to bring the soil moisture
content of a given soil to its field capacity is called the field moisture
deficiency or soil moisture deficiency.
Equivalent moisture: Equivalent moisture is the water retained by a
saturated soil after being centrifuged for 30 minutes by a centrifugal
force of 1000 times that of gravity. Therefore, it is slightly less, or at the
most equal to the field capacity.
Er. Janap Ghimire 13
Classes and availability of soil water
Er. Janap Ghimire 14
Water present in the soil may be
1. Hygroscopic water
2. Capillary water
3. Gravitational water
• When an oven-dried sample is kept open in the atmosphere, it absorbs
some amount of water from the atmosphere. This is known as
hygroscopic water, and is not capable of movement by the gravity or
capillary forces.
• Capillary water is that part in excess of hygroscopic water which
exists in the pore space of the soil by molecular attraction.
• Gravitational water is that part in excess of hygroscopic and
capillary water which will move out of the soil if favorable drainage is
provided.
Water may also be classified as unavailable, available and superfluous.
This classification is based on the availability of soil water to plants.
Er. Janap Ghimire 15
Optimum Utilization of Irrigation Water
• If a crop is sown and produced under absolutely identical
conditions, using different amounts of water depths, the
yield is found to vary.
Er. Janap Ghimire 16
• The yield increases with water reaches a certain maximum
value and then falls down. The quantity of water at which
the yield is maximum, is called the optimum water depth.
• Therefore, optimum utilization of irrigation, generally
means, getting maximum yield with any amount of water.
• The supplies of water to the various crops should be
adjusted in such a fashion, as to get optimum benefit ratio,
not only for the efficient use of available water and
maximum yield, but also to prevent water-logging of the
land.
Er. Janap Ghimire 17
Field Capacity
• Field Capacity is the amount of soil moisture or water content held in
the soil after excess water has drained away and the rate of downward
movement has decreased.
• Field capacity is characterized by measuring water content after
wetting a soil profile, covering it (to prevent evaporation) and
monitoring the change soil moisture in the profile.
• Field Capacity, immediately after a rain or irrigation water
application, when all the gravity water has drained down to the water
table, a certain amount of water is retained on the surfaces of soil
grains by molecular attraction and by loose chemical bonds (i.e.
adsorption).
• This water cannot be easily drained under the action of gravity, and is
called-the field capacity.
• The field capacity is thus the water content of a soil after free
drainage has taken place for a sufficient period.
• This period of free gravity drainage is generally taken as 2 to 5 days.
Er. Janap Ghimire 18
• The field capacity water further consists of two parts. One part is that
which is attached to the soil molecules by surface tension against
gravitation forces, and can be extracted by plants by capillarity. This
water is called capillary water.
• The other part is that which is attached to the soil molecules by loose
chemical bonds. This water which cannot be removed by capillarity is
not available to the plants, and is called the hygroscopic water.
• The field capacity water (i.e. the quantity of water which any soil can
retain indefinitely against gravity) is expressed as the ratio of the
weight of water contained in the soil to the weight of the dry soil
retaining that water.
Er. Janap Ghimire 19
• If we consider 1 m2 area of soil and d meter depth of root zone, then
the volume of soil is d x 1 = d cubic meters. If the dry unit wt. of soil
is γd kN/m3, then the Wt. of d cubic meters of soil is γd * d kN. If F is
the field capacity, then
Er. Janap Ghimire 20
• As expressed earlier, the total field capacity water cannot be utilized
by the plants. The plants can extract water from the soil till the
permanent wilting point is reached.
• The permanent wilting point is that water content at which plant can
no longer extract sufficient water for its growth, and wilts up. It is the
point at which permanent wilting of plants take place. It, therefore,
becomes evident that the water which is available to the plants, is the
difference of field capacity water and permanent wilting point water.
• This is known as available moisture or maximum storage capacity of
soil. Hence, the available water or available moisture may be defined
as the difference in water content of the soil between field capacity
and permanent wilting point.
• The water left in the soil after the permanent wilting point is reached,
cannot be removed, and is known as, unavailable moisture or
Hygroscopic water.
Er. Janap Ghimire 21
2.8 Depth and Frequency of lrrigation :
It is also evident from the previous discussion that the soil moisture is
not allowed to be depleted up to the wilting point, as it would result
in considerable fall in crop yield.
Er. Janap Ghimire 22
• The optimum level up to which the soil Moisture may be allowed to be
depleted in the root zone without fall in crop yield, has to be worked out
for every crop and soil, by experimentation.
• The irrigation water should be supplied as soon as the moisture falls up to
this optimum level (fixing irrigation frequency) and its quantity should be
just sufficient to bring the moisture content up to its field capacity, making
allowance for application losses (thus fixing water depth).
• Water will be utilized by the plants after the fresh irrigation dose is given,
and soil moisture will start falling. It will again be recouped by a fresh
dose of irrigation, as soon as the soil moisture reaches the optimum level
Er. Janap Ghimire 23
Example After how many days will you supply water to soil in order to
ensure sufficient irrigation of the given crop, if
(i) Field capacity of the soil = 28%
(ii) Permanent wilting point = 13%
(iii) Dry density of soil = 1.3 gm/c.c.
(iv) Effective depth of root zone = 70 cm
(v) Daily consumptive use of water for the given crop = 12 mm.
Assume any other data, not given.
Solution
We know, by definition of available moisture, that,
the available moisture = Field capacity — Permanent wilting
=28-13
= 15%.
Let us assume that the readily available moisture or the optimum soil
moisture level is 80% of available moisture.
ie., Readily available moisture = 0.80 x 15% = 12% .
Optimum moisture =28-12= 16%
Er. Janap Ghimire 24
It means that the moisture will be filled by irrigation between 16% and 28%.
Depth of water stored in root zone between these two limits
Hence, water available for evapo-transpiration = 10.92 cm.
1.2 cm of water is utilized by the plant in 1 day (from question)
10.92 cm of water will be utilized by the plant in
= ((1X10.92)/1.2 ) days = 9.1 days ; Say 9 days.
Hence, after 9 days, water should be supplied to the given crop.
Er. Janap Ghimire 25
Example:
Er. Janap Ghimire 26
Er. Janap Ghimire 27