The Role of Automation and Control Systems in Water

Resources Engineering

Nilgiin Harmancioglu

Civil Engineering Department, Dokuz Eyliil University, Bomova, Izmir, Turkey

Introduction

It is the responsibility of water resources engineering to control and regulate water to serve a
wide variety of purposes. Certain fields of water resources engineering - such as flood con-
trol, land drainage, sewerage, and highway culvert design deal primarily with the control of
adverse effects of water. Water supply, irrigation, and hydroelectric power development are
the three major fields which serve the utilization of water for beneficial purposes. It is basi-
cally in these fields that the largest water resources systems are developed. In recent years,
pollution control or water-quality management has become an important phase of water re-
sources engineering.
The development of water resources systems is accomplished in two phases. The first
one comprises the planning, design, and construction of the system, which require interdisci-
plinary expertise and judgment. The second phase, the operation of the system, is equally im-
portant as the first. It is only by means of efficient operation that the system can fulfill its ex-
pected purpose with respect to technical, economical, social, political, and legal criteria.
Operation is extremely significant, especially in large water resources systems that are
developed for the utilization of water (i.e., water supply, irrigation, and hydroelectric power
production). In the operation of such systems, automation is called for by two factors:

• The significantly large dimensions of the system, together with numerous components
involved, each of which needs to be controlled

• Temporal variation of either the inputs or the outputs, which require continuous control

In addition, each control within the system has to be realized with utmost precision, to
prevent either total or partial breakdown of the system. Under these conditions, it is not wise
to leave the whole job to the operators, although this is often the case in many systems, espe-
cially in developing countries. Automation helps to solve most of the operational problems to
achieve higher efficiency. Consequently, either total or partial automation has entered the
field of water resources engineering.
It may be of interest to note here that quite a number of parallel aspects exist between
water resources engineering (WRE) and air traffic control (ATC), although the two are related
to completely different fields of application. Both deal with systems (Le., water resources
systems and ATC systems) which require controlled operation. Hydrologic flow can occur

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Automation and Systems Issues in Air Traffic Control
Edited by John A. Wise et al.
© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 1991
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naturally within an existing solid medium; however, controlled operation is needed so that
water flows in desired amounts and in selected directions. On the other hand, air traffic flow
occurs in a controlled form where automation plays an essential role. Within this framework,
automation in WRE may be considered "optimal" rather than "essential," since the control of
water flows does not necessarily call for automation. The dimensions of both the ATC and
WRE systems are significantly large; therefore, they can be described as "complex systems."
The latter have become highly complicated, especially within the last two decades, so that the
operation of such systems puts a growing demand on automation. In addition, precision is ex-
tremely significant in the operation of both ATC and WRE systems, to avoid system failures.
Automation helps to preserve a certain level of precision by reducing human errors and the
associated uncertainties. However, despite all its advantages, automation has not yet become
as essential in WRE systems operation as it is in ATC systems.
This paper discusses the role of automation in irrigation and hydroelectric power produc-
tion systems which show the greatest need for automatic control. Water supply and pollution
control systems also use automation in various applications, and these are considered in an-
other paper as issues of environmental engineering (Alp asIan, 1991).
A part of the paper is devoted to discussion of automation in data processing systems,
which provide hydrological data as inputs to WRE systems at both the design and the opera-
tion phases. Data processing is an essential component of WRE systems, since all decisions
are based on available data. Management of vast amounts of such data also requires automat-
ed processing. Otherwise, data handling is a highly time- and energy-consuming activity,
subject to human errors.

Automation in Irrigation Systems

Often, irrigation systems have large area dimensions with numerous components (e.g. canals,
gates, checks, valves, pumping stations, etc.). To give an example, the irrigation system de-
signed within the Southeastern Anatolian Project in Turkey is going to supply water for more
than one million hectacres of irrigatable land by means of four large dams and power plants,
two dozen small dams, four small power plants, and numerous pumping plants. The design of
this system is a perfectly elegant one, but the operation will be a huge job, especially if it is
realized by manpower. Full, or at least partial, automation is definitely required for this
project.
A good example for an automated irrigation system is the Salt River Project in Tucson,
Arizona, where a 138 mile canal network can be monitored and controlled by a single opera-
tor.
This sophisticated water-handling system, known as Supervisory Control, is made possi-
ble through the use of electronic equipment coupled with a small process computer. The
equipment receives telemetered data from 80 canal stations and displays water levels and gate
positions at the control console. The computer automatically calculates the flow rate for each
gate and will add the flow for all gates at any given station. The operator is able to control
331 radial gates, 46 deepwell pumps, and eight large booster pumps.
The first phase of the Supervisory Control construction was begun in 1970. This phase
consisted of the installation of the master control console, the system controller, automatic
data logger, data printer, and the Supervisory Control electronic logic equipment. In addition