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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Maricopa, Arizona » U.S. Arid Land Agricultural Research Center » Water Management and Conservation Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #221515
Title: ANALYSIS OF SURFACE IRRIGATION SYSTEMS WITH WINSRFR - EXAMPLE APPLICATION

Author
item Bautista, Eduardo
item Clemmens, Albert
item Strelkoff, Theodor
item NIBLACK, M - UNIV OF AZ, TUCSON, AZ

Submitted to: Agricultural Water Management
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/9/2009
Publication Date: 4/24/2009
Citation: Bautista, E., Clemmens, A.J., Strelkoff, T., Niblack, M. 2009. ANALYSIS OF SURFACE IRRIGATION SYSTEMS WITH WINSRFR - EXAMPLE APPLICATION. Agricultural Water Management. 96:1162-1169

Interpretive Summary: WinSRFR is a comprehensive package for analyzing surface irrigation system hydraulics. The software integrates a simulation engine with procedures for system evaluation, design, and operational analysis. This article presents an example application of the software. The example is based on field-measured data, and shows how the data can be used to, first, assess the current performance of the system and to evaluate infiltration properties needed by subsequent analyses. The article then discusses the adequacy of the current design with the help of performance contours generated by the software. Strategies for optimizing system operations are then discussed, also based on performance contours aided by simulation studies. Finally, the article examines the sensitivity of the recommended operational strategy, based on the uncertainty of the data. The analytical framework presented in this paper should be of interest to irrigation specialists in general, and to specialists from NRCS in particular.

Technical Abstract: WinSRFR is an integrated software package for analyzing surface irrigation systems. This article documents an example application and shows how the software can be used to analyze a wide range of possible design and operational solutions, find one that will meet practical constraints, and study the sensitivity of the recommended design or operational strategy. The analyzed field is a graded, border irrigation system. WinSRFR’s Event Analysis tools are used first to evaluate current performance of the system and to estimate the field’s infiltration and hydraulic roughness properties. WinSRFR Design World performance contours are then used to examine the adequacy of the existing design. Similarly, operations can be optimized using the performance contours provided in WinSRFR’s Operations Analysis World. Because the analyzed system is closed-ended and the tools apply only to open-ended systems, a few simulations are needed to adapt the contour results to the analyzed problem. Finally, sensitivity analysis are used to demonstrate the robustness of the solutions.