Knolewdge acquired for irrigation practices at field scale in rural tropical environment.
Competence acquired: knowledge on design and check criteria of pressurized and surface irrigation systems, irrigation management, water and energy saving techniques.
Skills: design and management of pressurized and surface irrigation systems, practice of irrigation under conditions of limited water supply.
Allen R.G., Pereira L.S., Raes D., Smith M.: Crop evapotranspiration-guidelines for computing crop water requirements, FAO Irrigation and drainage paper n.56, Roma, 1998.
ARC-Agricultural Research Council, Standards and Guidelines for improved efficiency of irrigation water use from dam wall release to root zone application, Water Research Commission Report no. TT466/10, ISBN 978-1-4312-0023-8, pp. 34-37, 2010.
Ghinassi G.: Manual for performance evaluation of sprinkler and drip irrigation systems, ICID publication No. 94, New Delhi, 2008.
Sne M.: Micro Irrigation in Arid and Semi-Arid Regions - Guidelines for Planning and Design, ICID publication, ISBN : 81-89610-09-0, New Delhi, 2006.
Teaching aids supplied by the teacher
Learning Objectives
Knolewdge acquired: the course comprises lectures aiming at supplying the student with the knowledge required for irrigation practices at field scale in rural tropical environment.
Competence acquired at the end of the course: knowledge on soil hydrology, hydrological balance and evapotranspiration methods. Knowledge on design and check criteria of pressurized and surface irrigation systems, irrigation management, water and energy saving techniques.
Skills acquired at the end of the course: describe the hydrological balance and the irrigation parameters, design and management of pressurized (sprinkler and micro) and surface irrigation systems, practice of irrigation under conditions of limited water supply.
Prerequisites
Students are expected to be familiar with the principles of mathematics and physics.
Teaching Methods
CFU: 6
Total hours of the course (including the time spent in attending lectures, seminars, practice): 48
Contact hours for lectures: 22
Contact hours for laboratory-field/practice: 18
Seminar (hours): 8
Further information
Attendance is recommended. Exercises consist of numerical and practical applications of the topics.
Type of Assessment
Exam modality: written examination on the subjects of lectures and laboratory
Course program
Hydraulics: basic concepts, fluid statics, fluid dynamics, flow in pipe, open channel flow.
Pressurized flows: design of gravity and water lifting systems; characteristics of centrifugal pumps.
Mention to irrigation principles:
soil hydrology;
crop evapotranspiration and calculation methods;
irrigation parameters.
The water budget.
Design criteria for pressurized irrigation systems. Selection of irrigation equipment. Selection of pipe diameter and pump type. Distribution uniformity indicators (DU, CU), the water balance approach to assess system efficiency. Performance evaluation of pressurized and gravity irrigation systems. The concept of Benchmarking. Surface irrigation methods.
Design and management criteria aiming at water and energy saving. Deficit irrigation principles.