Skip to main content
ARS Home » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #59329
Title: INTRODUCTION TO CANAL CONTROL ALGORITHM NEEDS

Author
item Clemmens, Albert
item BURT, CHARLES - CAL POLY, SAN LUIS OB, CA
item ROGERS, DAVID - BOR, DENVER, CO

Submitted to: International Conference on Water Resources Engineering Proceedings
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/18/1995
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Water is becoming a scarce resource, and agricultural water users are under pressure to use water more judiciously. For many large irrigation projects, the physical infrastructure that delivers water to users influences their ability to manage the water supplied to them. From a management standpoint, distribution of water through pressurized pipelines would be more advantageous than delivery through canals, but for large-scale systems, canals are singificantly less expensive to construct. Conversion from canals to pipelines, likewise, is typically very expensive. Canal operations, however, can be improved by providing canal operators with better tools for determining control actions. Through field tests on an actual canal, progress is being made on one such tool: computerized automatic control of canal gates. This technology is not routinely available. The tests will determine the capabilities of various controllers, appropriate methods for tuning the controllers, and limitations in field application. The results of this work will benefit irrigation district personnel, consultants, and ultimately, farmers.

Technical Abstract: This paper provides an introduction to a series of papers by the ASCE Task Committee on Canal Automation Algorithms to be presented in this proceedings. The purpose of the task committee is to promote the development of improved canal automation algorithms. The committee has had active participation from both North America and Western Europe. The committee pursued three activities; Classification of Algorithms, Canal Characteristics, and Test Cases. The task committee results on these topics are presented in 8 additional papers.