Irrigation in Agriculture

E.A. Holzapfel, M.A. Mariño, in Encyclopedia of Ecology, 2008

Optimal Design of Irrigation Systems and Methods
Criteria and procedures have been developed to improve the
application of water by means of soil leveling, irrigation system design,
control of water discharge, conveyance structures, and so forth.
Irrigation system design substantially affects water application
efficiency and involves many variables and restrictions. Its main
objective is to maximize benefits or minimize costs.
A successful irrigation system design must produce for a fixed set of
resources a maximum return. To achieve this, an optimization model
to support the design and operation of the water application system is
required due to the large quantity of possible combinations of the
design variables that satisfy irrigation conditions.
Irrigation methods have specific applications that are based on factors
such as type of crop, soil type, topography, water availability, and
water quality. The application efficiency of surface and pressurized
irrigation methods depends on their design, management, and
operation. Table 1 shows the application efficiency of various irrigation
methods.