How Gis is Used in Irrigation Water Management
Irrigation is a practice that involves the artificial application of water to soil on land, through various systems of tubes, pumps, and sprays. Irrigation is typically employed in locations where rainfall is inconsistent, dry periods are forecast, or drought is predicted. There are various types of irrigation systems that supply water consistently to the entire field. Groundwater, from springs or wells, surface water, from rivers, lakes, or reservoirs, and even treated wastewater or desalinated water can be used for irrigation.
Irrigation systems are selected, designed, and operated to satisfy the irrigation requirements of a farm. There are many different types of irrigation systems, depending on how water is distributed throughout the field. Ultimately, various irrigation systems exist to ensure water resources are sustained and effectively distributed and managed. Irrigation is an essential component for efficient and sustainable agricultural production, hence, good and sustainable irrigation water project management leads to the success of irrigation.
GIS is a significant instrument for optimizing the distribution of water resources in an irrigation project. Geographic Information System (GIS) is a powerful tool and can be used to select, design, install, and manage an irrigation system for a farm. Various thematic layers consisting of attributes such as; topography, soil texture, soil water retention, bulk density, the infiltration rate of water, and field drainage system are developed using GIS. The thematic layers used alongside water availability and water demand are very important elements required to design and plan farm irrigation systems.
To ensure the High performance of irrigation systems, information/data related to irrigation must be adequate. The majority of the information/data related to irrigation is categorized geographically, thus, the use of the GIS software is critical to creating databases for irrigation systems in order to have easily available and non-superfluous data. Data must be collected, recorded, and interconnected in a methodical manner.
The use of GIS in irrigation water management is more than just creating maps. The GIS software can be used for a variety of purposes in irrigation water management, including mapping, database integration, planning/management, and modeling.
