Author
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Clemmens, Albert |
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Submitted to: Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal Publication Acceptance Date: 10/1/1997 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. Most large water delivery systems convey and distribute water with canals rather rthan pipelines. For large-scale systems, canals are an order of magnitude less expensive than pipelines. Infrastructure improvements (e.g., conversion to pressurized pipelines) are typically very expensive relative to changes in operations. Operations can be improved by providing canal operators with better tools for determining control actions. One such tool is computerized automatic control of canal gates. This technology, however, is not routinely available to irrigation district personnel and consultants. An international team of experts in this technical field are cooperating to advance this technology so that it can be more readily adopted. This editorial discusses the current state-of-the-art of this field and the need for more field application of this technology to aid in its maturation. The results should be useful for researchers and developers of canal control methods, irrigation districts, consulting engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation. Technical Abstract: The ASCE task committee on Canal Automation Algorithms was established to help bridge the gap between theory and practice. The focus of the committee was on the logic of the control methods that is, the algorithms not on the physical hardware. The committee divided their work into three tasks: 1) to identify existing control methods and theories, and to classify these emethods according to their function, 2) to determine the influence of the canal's hydraulic properties on the suitability of various control methods, and 3) to establish a series of test cases for control algorithms to provide algorithm developers with some common tests. In this special issue on canal automation, the task committee members present the results of their work on these three topics. This work is viewed, not as the final word on canal automation, but as a starting point to putting canal automation theory into practice. The task committee hopes that these papers swill improve the reader's understanding of and interest in canal automatio technology. |
