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Aoife McGuire

4/10/15

Comp 72

Technology

Irrigation
What is irrigation? Irrigation is when artificial watering systems (pipes, canals, even hoses) are
used to help sustain crops in dry climates. Rainfall is unreliable and cannot guarantee that crops
can be grown, so people long ago developed a way to use artificial water systems so that they
would be able to live in dry places but could still get the crops that they needed to survive.
Irrigation is very important to learn about because it was created so long ago, but is so necessary
today and could actually contribute to future technologies. In this paper, I will talk about the
history of irrigation, how it works, its advantages and disadvantages and its relevance to future
technologies.
The first record of irrigation happening was in Egypt and Mesopotamia in about 6000 B.C. In
these places, the Nile, Tigris and Euphrates (rivers) all flooded from July to December. The
floods drowned places that didnt need water, but left the fields that did bone dry. This was
becoming a problem, so the people created a system that would cause the flood water to flow
easily into fields and, as a result, would cause the crops to thrive. They used irrigation. Basically,
they built a long canal-like structure that would divert the flood water and it would water their
crops. Although this is the first evidence of a complex irrigation system, there were people
before them who technically used irrigation. They collected water from local wells and then
watered their crops with it. The Mesopotamians, Egyptians, even the Romans created a cement
pipe that carried water into their farms. This is the historical significance of irrigation.
There are many different forms of irrigation today. For example, gravity irrigation is when
water flows where it does because of gravity, not pressure. In addition, another type of irrigation
is using sprinklers, which spray water at a certain pressure at a continuous rate. Lastly, another
type of irrigation is flood irrigation (the ancient Egyptians used it), which is when the soil of a
farm is covered in water. All in all, irrigation systems work in many different ways but all
provide the same services; providing a guaranteed supply of water to plants.
There are both advantages and disadvantages when it comes to irrigation. One advantage is that
irrigation can help areas that dont have suitable environments grow plants, because it gives them
a constant supply of water that their ecosystem alone cannot provide for them. However, a big
disadvantage of irrigation is that it can harm the environment. When water is drawn from natural
sources and diverted to other places, it can cause soil to become higher in salt content, and
building systems like dams can cause wildlife to be harmed by changing the natural qualities of
the body of water itself. But, on the other hand, without plants, any inhabitants of this area would
not be able to survive. These are some advantages and disadvantages of irrigation.

About 18 percent of the farming areas in the world are irrigated, and this number is growing.
This is because irrigation has such a huge impact on us. Irrigation helps us grow crops in any
climates or ecosystem, which not only helps the economy by creating new exports and jobs, but
will also make land that was previously thought to be too dry or too hot habitable! If we
continue to improve irrigation systems, I believe that it will be a big factor in future technologies.
In the future, as the population gets bigger and bigger, irrigation will be able to provide people
all over the world with water, and it just might be able to be supplying this water in a noninvasive, environmentally-friendly way. In addition, when the population tarts to grow even
more in the future, more crops will be needed to feed all of the people and animals on the Earth,
and the most efficient way to distribute water to grow these crops is through irrigation. Lastly, in
the future as we become more ambitious in the digital revolution, we cannot forget that
medicines, dyes, fabric and more can be found in plants, and most plants need irrigation in order
to survive. Overall, irrigation is very important in todays society and will continue to be as it
helps develop future technologies and innovations.

Sources
http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/encyclopedia/irrigation/?ar_a=1
https://water.usgs.gov/edu/irquicklook.html
http://www.icid.org/res_irri_envimp.html

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