EGE 311

People and the Earth’s Ecosystem

 Module 2

Human Impacts in the Environment

Lesson 2

Application

What is happening in these pictures?

This aerial view of a crop circle shows a center-pivot irrigation system

that supplies water to a 99-acre corn field. You can see the arc that was most
recently watered at the 10 o’clock position on the field. The spots are
nonfertile areas where crops do not thrive. Center-pivot irrigation saves water
compared to the traditional gravity-flow method of irrigation, in which water is
directed to flow in ditches between crop rows; perhaps only 40 percent of the
water reaches the crops using traditional irrigation methods.

Use the Internet to investigate the low energy, precision application

(LEPA) sprinklers that allow 90 to 95 percent of the water in center-pivot
irrigation to reach crops.
1. Highly developed countries have most of the world’s center-pivot irrigation
systems. Why do you think this is the case?
Answer: As the country that is highly industrialized, their field of agriculture
were the best that the government gives value to one of the most
important needs of every human that the benefits of irrigation under pivot
are well established: Longevity of facilities, low servicing and maintenance,
savings of both time and energy, uniformity of irrigation, maximized yield
and adaptation to major projects.
2. The wavy lines are small dikes constructed to control runoff because the
field is not flat. Why do you think these dikes are constructed the way they
are? How is using these dikes similar to contour plowing?
Answer: In my own opinion the dikes made also for it is the way of a
person when they pass through and also to control the run of water that
had been irrigate in the cornfield.