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Title: IDENTIFICATION AND QUANTIFICATION OF EFFICIENCY AND UNIFORMITY COMPONENTS

Author
item BURT, CHARLES - CAL POLY, SLO, CA
item Clemmens, Albert
item SOLOMON, KENNETH - IRRIG & RES CTR, SLO, CA

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: Competition for limited water supplies has escalated substantially over the last decade. Unfortunately there are many misconceptions about water use, particularly in irrigated agriculture. The potential water savings that might result from increases in irrigation efficiency are usually overestimated. Many of these misconceptions and erroneous estimates of water savings stem from misunderstandings about how irrigation performance measures are defined and used. An ASCE task committee was formed to help to clarify the definition of irrigation performance measures -- what they represent and what has to be measured in order to provide reasonable values. This paper discusses the factors which influence irrigation performance and the difficulties with accurate measurement of numerical values for these components on a field or larger scale. The results of this work will benefit irrigation district personnel, consultants, and ultimately, farmers.

Technical Abstract: Proper usage of irrigation performance indicators such as uniformity and efficiency require standardized definitions and equations, specification of vertical and horizontal boundaries, inclusion of all pertinent components, and accurate measurement and estimation of those components. The quantification of some critical components is a challenge, and errors always exist.