Irrigation

Modern Irrigation Management More Than Just Turning Off The Water
Guenter Hauber-Davidson1, Rex Sullings2 Managing Director, Water Conservation Group, Pymble/Sydney NSW, Australia Senior Irrigation Engineer, Water Conservation Group, Pymble/Sydney NSW, Australia Corresponding author, email guenterhd@watergroup.com.au Abstract The response to water restrictions has simply been to turn off irrigation systems. Past wastage and bad management practices have contributed to the belief that this is the easiest way to save water. Yet, only recently is the industry beginning to reinvent itself concentrating on original basic irrigation practices. Ideal plant watering needs are frequently derived from agricultural principles, which were maximised for crop production. Deriving an assessment of the amount of water an irrigation system can apply is often determined from catch can tests. Results are based on the worst performing quadrant. It leads to overly excessive design watering needs. Instead, in a parks and garden type situation, basing the design on a medium or even 65%ile result would be adequate. An optimum plant selection should be undertaken matching local micro climate, aspect, exposure and soils. Next the use of modern irrigation application technology such as sub soil drip irrigation supported by capillary suction mats can stretch that drop of water a lot further. Finally, a sophisticated and carefully operated irrigation control system with user feedback can provide a system where the difference is minimised between optimised plant watering demands and the actual amount of irrigation water applied. This is of particular importance where watering needs are supplied from alternative water sources as this minimises issues with the up concentration of salts. A modern, well operated, carefully assessed, monitored and smart metered water efficient irrigation system can readily provide amenity values we should be able to provide to the community in a modern society even under water restrictions. Keywords: Irrigation, plant watering needs, water restrictions, water efficiency, irrigation control and management. Introduction The response to water restrictions in Australia has been to simply turn off urban irrigation systems. Prior to water restrictions some Councils used 70% of their total water consumption for irrigation. Stories abounded with sprinklers running in the middle of the heaviest rain event watering plenty of road and the car park. This wastage and poor management practices have contributed to the belief that simply turning off the irrigation is the easiest way to save water (Figure 1). Yet, only recently is the industry beginning to reinvent itself concentrating on original basic irrigation practices.
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Water Conservation Group Pty Ltd | 15/33 Ryde Rd | Pymble NSW 2073 | ABN 79 121 148 169 Ph 02 9499 8795 Fax 02 9499 4950 E-mail water@watergroup.com.au Web www.watergroup.com.au
There is considerable anecdotal evidence of water savings in the order of 60-80% through better irrigation application and management practices on a number of larger commercial sites in the Sydney region alone stark evidence of the shortcomings of past practices and the effectiveness of more stringent urban irrigation management and advanced urban irrigation practices in general. Water savings in irrigation can be achieved through three broad categories: reduced plant watering needs, increased efficiency of irrigation technologies, and introduction of effective irrigation control and management systems. Water Demand Assessment While water was cheap and plentiful there was little need to place much emphasis on determining actual plant watering needs nor on identifying ways of decreasing this demand. Urban irrigation design derived its principles from rural irrigation practices, where maximising the yield was a primary concern. Yet, in the urban context, if one could have a green soft playing field without grass growth avoiding the need to cut it that would be ideal.
Figure 1. A sports fields suffering under water restrictions. Adjusting design principles to match the unique needs of urban parks and gardens including playing fields and golf courses is a first step to lock in significant water savings [1]. Modern irrigation practices need to take into account a wide array of factors which influence water demand including the weather, site vegetation, soil type, profile and depth, micro-climatic issues such as wind, temperature, shading, and aspect (which all have an impact on evapo-transpiration), slope (where applicable), field use/traffic, field management practices like fertilising, mowing, aerating etc, and the importance of the desire amenity and the prestige value attached to a particular field or oval to minimise plant watering needs. Figure 2 shows the large variability. Few have ever thought about how much water is really needed.
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Total Water Demand
120,000 Total Water Demand ML/yr 100,000 80,000 60,000 40,000 20,000 0 Council Irrigation Demand Model Council Target "Rule of Thumb" Design
Figure 2. Variability of different water demands As Batham points out [1] further potential lies in the selection of appropriate plants. Depending on aspect, soil, traffic, playing needs and desired amenity value appropriate species can be selected. Grass is not equal grass, and not all natives are water efficient. In fact, some natives planted in the wrong location, can require more water than exotic species [1]!
Climate
As p
ec t
e op Sl
Usage
Plant moisture demand

Pl an t
Prestige
il So
sp e
cie s
Figure 3. Factors influencing plant water needs Knowing these water needs (Figure 3), and then carefully designing the irrigation system and selecting irrigation schedules to match these needs whilst taking into account soil moisture holding capacities to get to the plant just the amount of water
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that it needs to perform the agreed function, is the secret to modern water efficient irrigation management. This understanding of demand must then be coupled with state of the art control systems, so that the minimum amount of water is used to supply the required plant water demand. Such control systems should ensure that the water applied (if above ground irrigation is used) achieves optimum percolation into the ground. The soils moisture holding capacity should be maximised, and this can often be achieved with a simple soil amelioration program. Coupled with an adjusted irrigation and field management scheme, this will further minimise watering needs as it increases the amount of rainwater that can be stored. On the other hand, practices such as reestablishing a field, reseeding, or returfing it, will significantly increase water demands for a period of time and need to be taken into appropriate consideration. As more water can be retained in the soil profile, it will provide for a more fault- tolerant irrigation pattern, i.e. even if application cycles and irrigation depths are not optimally adjusted, the soil has a capacity to buffer it (Figure 4). In effect, the soil profile can act as a rainwater storage tank, making it more drought tolerant, or at least less susceptible to sub-optimal irrigation if irrigation was reduced. All these factors need to be taken into account when assessing how for example a playing field can be kept in a safe and suitable state, without wasting water and taking into account a range of environmental and operational factors.
Soil Profile as Rainwater Storage Tank
Christison Park
1,400 1,200 1,000 800
kL
600 400 200 0 12mm 25mm 33mm
Figure 4. Equivalent tank storage volume depending on soil moisture holding capacity
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Optimising how much water gets to the plant Imagine a system where 70% of the volume supplied is lost before it even gets to the point where it can be used. Yet, this, and worse, is what has frequently been happening with typical urban irrigation systems [3]. No matter how hard you try you just cannot fit a round peg into a square hole, well not perfectly. Yet this is what irrigation sprinkler with a circular wetting pattern try to do when irrigating a rectangular sports field (Figure 5)!
Sprinklers
Figure 5. Conceptual illustration of one inherent design limitation of applying equal amounts of irrigation water via overhead sprinklers (example showing an older system with non uniform heads) The vast majority of landscape and turf sprinklers have circular wetting patterns and come with a range of nozzles suitable for a variety of applications. These nozzles have varying distances of throw, application rates and uniformities of distribution depending on the nozzle specification and sprinkler pressure. Distribution uniformity is also affected by the distance between the sprinklers and the basic layout (rectangular or triangular) of the sprinkler heads. Drip tube irrigation systems overcome that geometrical challenge (Figure 6). Novel system such as the KISSS [3] (Kapillary Irrigation Sub-Surface Systems) go further and achieve additional water savings through clever application and sub-soil moisture distribution. Its ability to improve the movement of water through the soil in the required direction has allowed dramatic efficiency improvements in the sports turf area in particular.
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Sub Soil
Figure 6: Uniform application of water through sub soil irrigation systems The resultant savings can be quite staggering as Figure 7 taking from a real life project assessment shows.
Annual Water Demands

35,000 Annual Water Demand 30,000 25,000 20,000 15,000 10,000 5,000 0 Current Conditions Uniform Irrigation Rain dependant Heads irrigation Uniform Heads Below ground and Rain kapillary irrigation Dependant
Figure 7. Water demands for different irrigation options With overhead sprinklers it is very difficult to even achieve evenness of coverage within the area of a single circular sprinkler. As the distance from the nozzle increases, the area covered for each degree of arc of coverage is increased dramatically. Sprinkler manufacturers attempt to overcome this situation by the use of sprinkler nozzles that actually apply more water to the outside of the circle than the inner parts of the circle. Still, it is an imperfect science, and works, at best, while the system is new. Accurate installation of the sprinklers is another critical factor. The misplacement of a single sprinkler by only a small amount can have a significant effect on the evenness of coverage. The best results actually achieved in the field are in the region of approximately 80-90% of optimum efficiency.
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This uneven coverage results in uneven turf growth and is difficult to overcome without significant water waste. The typical response of the turf manager is to irrigate according to the needs of the driest part, as this approach will at least result in the entire area appearing green. The trade-off is waste of water on the remaining areas that receive more water than they actually require. Irrigation Auditing An irrigation audit is a comprehensive assessment of an irrigation system combined with the generation of a detailed programming schedule for the system. An irrigation audit follows these steps. 1. A detailed examination of the system components to ensure the system is in an acceptable working condition. Any significant defects identified at this stage are repaired and any major anomalies corrected. Blocked or damaged nozzles, misaligned heads, poorly orientated heads, leaking valves, damaged or broken sprinklers, articulated risers, pipes etc are all remedied. 2. A catch can test is undertaken to quantify the efficiency of distribution of the system. A number of catch cans are distributed in an area that is considered to be representative of the overall area. The irrigation system is then operated and the results are recorded. Wind direction and velocity are also recorded. Catch can tests can only be conducted in low winds otherwise results are very misleading. 3. Detailed data relating to the system and the irrigated area is compiled. In this step all other factors considered to be relevant are identified and documented. Turf and plant types, soil type and condition, infiltration capacity, plant root depth, slope, aspect, microclimate i.e. presence of wind breaks, shade etc, and proximity to heat sink surfaces etc, are all taken into consideration. 4. The collected data and information is collated and a suitable irrigation schedule is generated to maximise the system efficiency. The collected data is now entered into an irrigation scheduling model where the remaining contributing factors are identified and recorded. The relative efficiency of the operation of the system, seasonal variations in use, management practices such as top dressing, coring, soil amelioration etc are all recorded and integrated into the scheduling modelling tool (Figure 8). The scheduling model can produce irrigation schedules on an annual, seasonal or monthly basis. These schedules, combined with measured flow rates and other data collected during the audit will provide accurate demand figures. 5. A detailed report is generated. It documents the findings of the audit and provides recommendations for further improvements to the efficiency of the system through possible adjustments and or alterations and through the implementation of a comprehensive control, monitoring, maintenance and repair programme.
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From this audit optimum irrigation schedules can be derived. However, this has often been based on agricultural irrigation systems and practice where the primary focus is to maximise crop production rather than on water efficiency. Typically, the lowest quadrant of catch can results is used as the baseline as this will give the greatest certainty of maximum crop production. A more appropriate assessment method for urban landscape and sports turf irrigation systems is to base the assessment calculations on the median third of the catch can results. This leads to significant water savings and it provides the end user with a more flexible scheduling tool making it simple to generate seasonally adjusted irrigation schedules. The end result is an irrigation system that operates at its peak efficiency. Improvements in efficiency in the order of 20-40% from the implementation of the recommendations from an irrigation audit are quite common, and the water saved can represent millions of litres per year.
BASIC IRRIGATION AUDIT WORKSHEET

A: B: C: D: Item STEP 1: PLANT WATER REQUIREMENT: Plant Material Reference Period Reference ET (ETo) Landscape Coefficient (KL) Source Audit/Planting Plan Judgment Various - BOM Areal Actual KS x KD x KMC CxD Calc Value W/S Turf 92 220 0.8 176 23.47 1.07 164.49 420.50 Sandy Loam 0.21 150 31.5 15.75 11 37.63 62.31 1 92 11 8.23 7 0.85 37.63 31.99 4 8.00
ETO x KL E: Plant Water Requirement STEP 2: IRRIGATION WATER REQUIREMENT F: Precipitation Rate Audit or calculation G: Distribution Uniformity - LTDU Audit or estimate H: Irrigation water requirement Plant water requirement/LQDU I: Total runtime per period Irrig water requirement / Precipitation rate STEP 3: SCHEDULING REQUIREMENTS J: Rootzone soil type Audit or estimate K: Available water holding capacity Table 5 (in soils) L: Active rootzone depth Audit or estimate M: Rootzone available water AWHC x active rootzone N: Working storage Rootzone RAW x MAD O: Number of irrig days per reference period Plant water req / Working storage P: Total runtime per irrigation day Total run-period / # irrig days Q: Runtime per cycle Audit or estimate R: Cycles per irrigation day Total run-day / runtime-cycle STEP 4: CONVERSION TO WEEKLY SCHEDULE: S: Number of days per reference period Reference period under Audit T: Number of irrig days per reference period Plant water req / Working storage U: Multiplying Factor for Conversion No of ref days divided by no of irrig days V: Number of days in a week Multiplying Factor for Runtime Per Week Runtime Per Reference Period Irrig Day Runtime Per Week Cycles Per Week Runtime per cycle Fixed Days in week divided by conversion factor
E/G (H/F) x 60
KxL 50% E/N I/O P/Q
Determination by Auditor
Figure 8. Sample irrigation audit worksheet to determine efficiency rating
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Irrigation Management and Control Many of the potential savings listed above remain theoretical unless they are actually put into practice with a modern irrigation management and control system. The first step is to carefully assess optimum irrigation schedules balancing the new water needs with soil moisture holding capacity and the capacities of the irrigation system to establish optimum irrigation depths and application intervals. Coupled with field value observations such as rainfall, soil moisture sensors and potential other climate data such as wind, temperature and cloud cover or evapotranspiration measurements modern computer controlled systems can lead to further significant efficiency improvements. Remote control or web based systems, some even allowing for weather forecast based scheduling, make it possible and practical to realise these savings. To document the improved practices it should be essential that key data is also recorded. Better monitoring allows a retrospective assessment of what did work and what didnt, aided by the reporting tools of these new control systems. All too often in the past (and present) the amount of water used for irrigation is not even recorded. What you dont measure you cannot manage. Cost effective smart water metering systems remove that obstacle and is now a must. Conclusion Modern irrigation management practices and technologies allow a far more sophisticated approach to comply with water restrictions than just turning the water off whilst maintaining desired amenity values and healthy parks and gardens. Beginning with a first principle approach and applying the basic philosophy of water demand management looking for efficiency gains plant watering needs can often be scaled back by as much as 30%. Climate, aspect, slope, exposure, soil profile and characteristics, desired amenity values, usage, and plant species are all factors that go into the equation. A modern water efficient irrigation systems ensures that the amount of water that is actually made available for plant uptake is maximised. Performing irrigation audits on existing overhead irrigation sprinkler system can typically identify savings of 20-30% alone. Using modern Kapillary Irrigation Sub-Surface Systems can realise water savings of up to 70% by overcoming geometrical constraints, avoiding overspray and optimising water distribution within the soil. Coupling a modern irrigation management system incorporating remote control with live feedback and smart water metering for real time monitoring of water consumption are the final tools to not only achieve but also demonstrate that acceptable amenity values can be achieved with water savings similar to current turn the irrigation off for six days/week practices.
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References 1. Batham, M. Saving Water in Parks, Ovals and Golf Courses. Ozwater 2007. Darling Harbour, Sydney, 2007 2. B. Maheshwari and G. Connellan. Role of Irrigation in Urban Water Conservation: Opportunities and Challenges. Proceedings of the National Workshop, Sydney, 2004 3. G. Cesswell. The science behind capillary irrigation & water technologies. Local Government Sustainable Development 2007, Melbourne, 2007 4. Hauber-Davidson, G. and Idris, E. (2006) Smart Water Metering, Water, vol. 33 no. 3, pp. 38-41.
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10 Water Conservation Group Pty Ltd | 15/33 Ryde Rd | Pymble NSW 2073 | ABN 79 121 148 169 Ph 02 9499 8795 Fax 02 9499 4950 E-mail water@watergroup.com.au Web www.watergroup.com.au

Irrigation

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Modern Irrigation Management More Than Just Turning Off The Water

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Total Water Demand

Plant moisture demand

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Annual Water Demands

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BASIC IRRIGATION AUDIT WORKSHEET

KxL 50% E/N I/O P/Q

Figure 8. Sample irrigation audit worksheet to determine efficiency rating

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