1.1.

Water demand estimation: crop water and irrigation water requirements; water availability for
irrigation; command areas, irrigation intensity duty and delta; water losses and irrigation
efficiencies; effective rainfall; soil-moisture-irrigation relationship; depth and frequency of
irrigation; design discharge for canals.
Water Demand Estimation
Crop water and irrigation water requirement
❖ The total quantity and the way in which a crop requires water, from the time it is sown to
the time it is harvested is called water requirement of a crop.
❖ Water requirement is vary with the crop as well as with the place.
❖ The time period that elapses from the instant of its sowing to the instant of its harvesting is
called the crop period.
❖ The time between the first watering of a crop at the time of its sowing to its last watering
before harvesting is called base period. Crop period is slightly more than the base period
Duty and Delta of a crop
❖ Duty (D): The number of hectares of land irrigated for full growth of a given crop by the
supply of 1 cumec water continuously during base period (B).
❖ Delta (Δ): Total depth of water (in cm) required by a crop to come to maturity is called its
delta. The depth of water required every time, generally varies from 5 to 10 cm depending
upon the type of the drop, climate and soil. It is given by:
864𝐵
Δ = 𝐷 𝑐𝑚
❖ Factors affecting duty:
1. Types of crop
2. Climate and season
3. Useful rainfall
4. Types of soil
5. Efficiency of cultivation method
6. Topography of land
7. Methods of irrigation
❖ Irrigation Water Requirement
It is defined as the sum of crop water requirement plus all types of water losses.
• Consumptive irrigation requirement (CIR)
CIR=Cu - Re where, Cu = consumptive use Re = Effective rainfall
• Net irrigation requirement (NIR)
NIR=CIR + Le = (Cu -Re) + Le Where Le is the water require for leaching purpose.
• Field irrigation requirement (FIR)
FIR= NIR+ water application losses
𝑁𝐼𝑅
𝐹𝐼𝑅 =
𝜂𝑎
• Gross irrigation requirement (GIR)
GIR=FIR+ water conveyance losses
𝐹𝐼𝑅
G𝐼𝑅 =
𝜂𝑐
❖ Effective Rainfall (Re )
The part of precipitation (rainfall) that is available to the plants to meet their
evapotranspiration need is called effective rainfall.
Re = precipitation - percolation loss below root zone - surface runoff
❖ Soil moisture irrigation relationship
✓ Field capacity is the water remaining in a soil after it has been thoroughly saturated and
allowed to drain freely, usually for 2 to 5 days. Total water storage capacity of soil (m. of
𝑑∗𝛾𝑑 ∗𝐹
depth) = where, d= depth of root zone; γd = dry unit weight of soil; F = field
𝛾𝑤
capacity = Ratio of the wt. of water contained in the soil to the wt. of the dry soil retaining
that water.
• Saturation capacity: Water content of the soil when all the pores are filled with water
• Field capacity: The water content of a soil after free drainage has taken place for
sufficient period
• Gravity water: The part of rainfall or irrigated water that flows down to water table
under the action of gravity
• Capillary water: Water held by surface tension against gravity that can be extracted by
plants by capillary action
• Hygroscopic water: The water that is attached to the soil molecules by loose chemical
bond and hence is not available to plants
❖ Depth and frequency of irrigation

❖ Irrigation Efficiency
✓ Efficiency of water conveyance (ηc ): Ratio of water delivered into the fields from the
outlet point to the water entering into the channel at its starting point
✓ Efficiency of water application(ηa ): Ratio of quantity of water stored into the root zone
of the crops to the quantity of water actually delivered into the field
✓ Efficiency of water storage(ηs ): Ratio of quantity of water stored into the root zone during
irrigation to the water needed in the root zone prior to irrigation
✓ Efficiency of water use(ηu ): Ratio of water beneficially used including leaching water to
the quantity of water delivered
✓ Uniformity coefficient or water distribution efficiency (ηd): It represents the extent to
𝑑
which water has penetrated to a uniform depth throughout the field. η𝑑 = (1 − ) Where,
𝐷
d= average of the absolute value of deviation from the mean
D= mean depth of water stored during irrigation