SCADA and related technologies for irrigation district modernization

Presented at SCADA and related technologies for irrigation district modernization: a USCID water management conference on October 26-29, 2005 in Vancouver, Washington.Includes bibliographical references.Overview of Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) -- Total Channel Control™ - The value of automation in irrigation distribution systems -- Design and implementation of an irrigation canal SCADA -- All American Canal Monitoring Project -- Taking closed piping flowmeters to the next level - new technologies support trends in data logging and SCADA systems -- Real-time model-based dam automation: a case study of the Piute Dam -- Effective implementation of algorithm theory into PLCs -- Optimal fuzzy control for canal control structures -- SCADA over Zigbee™ -- Synchronous radio modem technology for affordable irrigation SCADA systems -- A suggested criteria for the selection of RTUs and sensors -- Irrigation canals in Spain: the integral process of modernization -- Ten years of SCADA data quality control and utilization for system management and planning modernization -- Moderately priced SCADA implementation -- Increasing peak power generation using SCADA and automation: a case study of the Kaweah River Power Authority -- Eastern Irrigation District canal automation and Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) -- Case study on design and construction of a regulating reservoir pumping station -- Saving water with Total Channel Control® in the Macalister Irrigation District, Australia -- Leveraging SCADA to modernize operations in the Klamath Irrigation Project -- A 2005 update on the installation of a VFD/SCADA system at Sutter Mutual Water Company -- Truckee Carson Irrigation District Turnout Water Measurement Program -- The myth of a "Turnkey" SCADA system and other lessons learned -- Canal modernization in Central California Irrigation District - case study -- Remote monitoring and operation at the Colorado River Irrigation District -- Web-based GIS decision support system for irrigation districts -- Using RiverWare as a real time river systems management tool -- Submerged venturi flume -- Ochoco Irrigation District telemetry case study -- Uinta Basin Replacement Project: a SCADA case study in managing multiple interests and adapting to loss of storage -- Training SCADA operators with real-time simulation -- Demonstration of gate control with SCADA system in Lower Rio Grande Valley, in Texas -- Incorporating sharp-crested weirs into irrigation SCADA systems

The Impacts of Payments for Watershed Services in Ecuador: Emerging Lessons from Pimampiro and Cuenca

The project set out to engage stakeholders in the evaluation of this emerging "market" for watershed services and its social impact. The study consists of two documents that are separate but also complement each other. The first document, called Markets or Metaphors? A Sustainable Livelihoods Approach to the Management of Environmental Services: two Cases from Ecuador, written by Dr Joseph Vogel, is at the centre of the research. This document presents the results of the development of a methodology and its application in the field. It also includes an economic and legal analysis that demonstrates the importance of understanding and including social and cultural implications when developing a market for watershed service

Assessing the outcomes of IWMI’s research and interventions on irrigation management transfer

Irrigation management / Participatory management / Privatization / Water users associations / Farmers associations / Gender

Men, Masculinities and Water Powers in Irrigation

The aim of this article is to provide an informed plea for more explicitly identifying, naming and unravelling the linkages between water control and gender in irrigation. The fact that power, expertise and status in irrigation tend to have a strong masculine connotation is by now quite well established, and underlies calls for more women in water decision making, engineering education and professions. Yet, the questions of how and why water control, status and expertise are linked to masculinity, and of whether and how such links work to legitimize the exercise of power, are seldom asked. To date, associations between masculinity and professional water performance have largely been taken for granted and remained unexamined. The resulting perceived normalcy makes mechanisms of (gendered) power and politics in water appear self-evident, unchangeable, and indeed gender-neutral. The article reviews examples of the masculinity of irrigation in different domains to argue that exposing and challenging such hitherto hidden dimensions of (gendered) power is important for the identification of new avenues of gender progressive change, and for shedding a new and interesting light on the workings of power in water. KEYWORDS: Irrigation, water, gender, politics, masculinities, engineer

How to manage salinity in irrigated lands: a selective review with particular reference to irrigation in developing countries

Irrigation management / Irrigable land / Soil salinity / Water use efficiency / Soil degradation / Irrigated farming / Policy making / Developing countries

Hydraulic Bureaucracies and the Hydraulic Mission: Flows of Water, Flows of Power

Anchored in 19th century scientism and an ideology of the domination of nature, inspired by colonial hydraulic feats, and fuelled by technological improvements in high dam constructions and power generation and transmission, large-scale water resources development has been a defining feature of the 20th century. Whether out of a need to increase food production, raise rural incomes, or strengthen state building and the legitimacy of the state, governments – North and South, East and West – embraced the 'hydraulic mission' and entrusted it to powerful state water bureaucracies (hydrocracies). Engaged in the pursuit of iconic and symbolic projects, the massive damming of river systems, and the expansion of large-scale public irrigation these hydrocracies have long remained out of reach. While they have enormously contributed to actual welfare, including energy and food generation, flood protection and water supply to urban areas, infrastructural development has often become an end in itself, rather than a means to an end, fuelling rent-seeking and symbolising state power. In many places projects have been challenged on the basis of their economic, social or environmental impacts. Water bureaucracies have been challenged internally (within the state bureaucracies or through political changes) and externally (by critiques from civil society and academia, or by reduced funding). They have endeavoured to respond to these challenges by reinventing themselves or deflecting reforms. This paper analyses these transformations, from the emergence of the hydraulic mission and associated water bureaucracies to their adjustment and responses to changing conditions

Centre Commissioned External Review (CCER) of the IWMI-TATA Water Policy Research Program

Agricultural research / Research projects / Project appraisal / Financing / Institutional development / Evaluation / Water policy / Water management / Irrigation management / Groundwater

Optimal predictive control of water transport systems: Arrêt-Darré/Arros case study

This paper proposes the use of predictive optimal control as a suitable methodology to manage efficiently transport water networks. The predictive optimal controller is implemented using MPC control techniques. The Arrêt-Darré/Arros dam-river system located in the Southwest region of France is proposed as case study. A high-fidelity dynamic simulator based on the full Saint-Venant equations and able to reproduce this system is developed in MATLAB/SIMULINK to validate the performance of the developed predictive optimal control system. The control objective in the Arrêt-Darré/Arros dam-river system is to guarantee an ecological flow rate at a control point downstream of the Arrêt-Darré dam by controlling the outflow of this dam in spite of the unmeasured disturbances introduced by rainfalls incomings and farmer withdrawals

A compact to revitalise large-scale irrigation systems using a leadership-partnership-ownership ‘theory of change’

In countries with transitional economies such as those found in South Asia, large-scale irrigation systems (LSIS) with a history of public ownership account for about 115 million ha (Mha) or approximately 45% of their total area under irrigation. In terms of the global area of irrigation (320 Mha) for all countries, LSIS are estimated at 130 Mha or 40% of irrigated land. These systems can potentially deliver significant local, regional and global benefits in terms of food, water and energy security, employment, economic growth and ecosystem services. For example, primary crop production is conservatively valued at about US$355 billion. However, efforts to enhance these benefits and reform the sector have been costly and outcomes have been underwhelming and short-lived. We propose the application of a 'theory of change' (ToC) as a foundation for promoting transformational change in large-scale irrigation centred upon a 'global irrigation compact' that promotes new forms of leadership, partnership and ownership (LPO). The compact argues that LSIS can change by switching away from the current channelling of aid finances controlled by government irrigation agencies. Instead it is for irrigators, closely partnered by private, public and NGO advisory and regulatory services, to develop strong leadership models and to find new compensatory partnerships with cities and other river basin neighbours. The paper summarises key assumptions for change in the LSIS sector including the need to initially test this change via a handful of volunteer systems. Our other key purpose is to demonstrate a ToC template by which large-scale irrigation policy can be better elaborated and discussed

Land settlement planning issues in irrigation management: A review of experiences in Sri Lanka

Irrigation managementSettlementPlanningLand management