Southern Region Engineering Conference

11-12 November 2010, Toowoomba, Australia

SREC2010-F3-2

Simulation modelling in surface irrigation systems

Richard Koech*, Malcolm Gillies and Rod Smith

CRC Cotton Catchment Communities and National Centre for Engineering in Agriculture (NCEA)
University of Southern Queensland,
Toowoomba, Australia.
*Corresponding and presenting author, [email protected]

Abstract— Australia is one of the driest countries in the world There is a large amount of published literature focussing
and hence irrigation, and particularly surface irrigation, is a on the potential benefits of applying simulation modelling
significant agricultural activity. In the recent past, efforts have during the design and management stages of surface irrigation
been made towards devising strategies necessary for efficient use systems. They report increased water use efficiency as a key
of water. The desire to optimise the dollar output of this scarce benefit of modelling leading to large water savings. For
resource while at the same time conserving the environment is instance the BDA group (2007) cited in Smith et al. (2009)
the main motivation for these efforts. estimate water savings in the cotton industry of 400 GL over a
Computer simulation models have the potential to improve the 16 year period corresponding to an increase in water use
efficiency of irrigation systems and thus deliver significant water efficiency of 10%.
savings. This can be achieved by optimising the design and This paper reviews the common surface irrigation
management decisions at the field level. The purpose of this
simulation models and their impact in the irrigation industry in
paper is to review the simulation models that have been
developed for surface irrigation. The impacts of these models in
Australia. These models however rely on soil infiltration data
the irrigation industry in Australia as well as their limitations are from previous irrigations to predict the performance of future
also discussed. irrigations, thereby ignoring the temporal variation in
infiltration. A simulation model is being developed at USQ as
In the majority of the surface irrigation simulation models part of an on-going project aimed at modernising the furrow
currently in use, previous field characteristics are used to system. The software to be used in automated furrow systems
optimise future irrigations. However, numerous researchers have utilises adaptive real time control concept. This is expected to
established that these characteristics change both with time and overcome the problem of variability of soil infiltration
space, and hence the accuracy of such models may be affected. A characteristics. The conceptual design of the model is
conceptual design of a computer simulation model suitable for
presented.
use in automated furrow systems utilising adaptive real time
control is presented. This is part of an on-going research project
at USQ aimed at modernising the furrow system. II. BACKGROUND TO SIMULATION MODELLING IN SURFACE
SYSTEMS
Keywords Simulation modelling, real-time control, surface
irrigation A. Purpose of simulation
I. INTRODUCTION
Surface irrigation simulation models are useful tools both
at the design and management stages of the surface systems.
Surface irrigation refers to application systems in which When used for irrigation design purposes, simulation models
water is applied and conveyed over the field surface by help to optimise surface irrigation variables such as field
gravitational force. Furrow, border and basin systems are the slope, length of the field and the design flow rate. That is, the
most common configurations of surface irrigation. Surface models can aid the designer in making decisions as to the
systems are by far the most widely used for the irrigation of appropriate values of these variables that produce the best
crops and pasture in the world, and account for about 63% of performance. This is mostly applicable to newly established
the total irrigated land in Australia (ABS 2010). fields or when converting to surface system from a different
Simulation in surface systems is the process of application method. These variables (particularly field slope
mathematically describing the hydraulic characteristics of and length) are difficult or expensive to vary once the system
water as it flows from one end of the field to the other. This is is operational.
achieved by use of computer models based on mathematical Time to inflow cut-off, inflow rate and the desired depth of
equations known as Saint Venant equations. SIRMOD application are management decisions that can be optimised
(Walker 1997) and WinSRFR (Bautista et al. 2009 appear to using simulation models. This is often preceded by a field
be the most widely used simulation models in Australia and evaluation process to generate the data to be used by the
US respectively. SIRMOD has particularly been embraced in simulation model. The optimised variables are used to modify
the cotton industry in Australia and has become a standard future irrigations in order to achieve the desired level of
evaluation tool (Gillies 2008). performance.

SREC2010-F3-2 1
 Whether used for design or management purposes, where I is the cumulative infiltration (m3/m), τ is the time
simulation modelling provides an opportunity to identify and (min) from the commencement of infiltration, k (m3/mina/m)
evaluate more efficient practices at a lower cost and shorter and a (non-dimensional) are fitted parameters and fo
time compared to field trials (Raine and Walker 1998). (m3/min/m) approximates the steady or final infiltration rate.
Many surface irrigation simulation models incorporate the
B. Governing equations above infiltration model.
In surface irrigation, water flows along the surface as it
infiltrates into the soil profile. Due to the variability of soil III. REVIEW OF EXISTING MODELS
intake rates (Walker 1989), the flow is both spatially varied The advent of the computer has led to development of a
and unsteady (Walker and Skogerboe 1987). This condition is number of simulation models used for surface irrigation
hydraulically similar to unsteady open channel flow and thus simulation and optimisation. SIRMOD (Walker 1997) and
can be described by Saint Venant equations. These equations WinSRFR (Bautista et al. 2009), the successor of SRFR
are based on the principle of conservation of mass or (Strelkoff et al. 1998), appear to be the most widely applied
continuity (Eqn. 1) and motion or momentum (Eqn. 2). surface irrigation models in Australia and the US respectively.
These and other models are summarised below:
(1) A. SIRMOD
SIRMOD (surface irrigation simulation, evaluation and
design) is a comprehensive simulation software package for
simulating surface irrigation hydraulics. In Australia,
SIRMOD, developed by Utah State University, has been
(2)
widely accepted as the standard for the evaluation and
optimisation of furrow irrigation (Gillies 2008) and can also
be used to simulate basin and border irrigation (Gillies et al.
where Q is the discharge (m3/s), A is the cross-sectional area
2008). The software is based on the full hydrodynamic model
of flow (m2) at a depth of y (m), x is the distance along the
but is also capable of applying the volume balance model to
furrow (m), t is the time (s) I is the infiltration rate (m3/m/s), g
determine the infiltration characteristics of an irrigated furrow
is gravitational acceleration (m/s2), V is the velocity of flow
from two points on the advance curve. Commonly the
(m/s), So is the channel bottom slope and Sf is the channel
infiltration parameters are instead estimated outside SIRMOD
friction slope. These are the basic mathematical equations
using models such as IPARM (Gillies and Smith 2005).
used by surface irrigation simulation models to simulate the
physical and hydraulic characteristics of an irrigation event. SIRMOD version II is commercially available through
IRRIMATETM (a suite of hardware and software tools
Due to the complexity of the above equations (McClymont
developed by the National Centre for Engineering in
2007), no analytical solution to the complete equations has
Agriculture, NCEA, based at the University of Southern
been found. Models that have been used for the solution of
Queensland). As a design tool, SIRMOD is used to predict the
these equations fall into one of the following four major
irrigation performance under alternative field parameters
categories: complete hydrodynamic models, zero inertia
(length and slope). SIRMOD can also be used to identify
models, kinematic wave models and the volume balance
performance improvements under different management
models. The complete hydrodynamic models use the complete
practices.
form of the Saint Venant equations and are therefore the most
accurate, but also the most complex. The other three models SIRMOD main output screen (Fig. 1) includes a plot of the
use simplified forms of the Saint Venant equations. In this distribution of infiltrated water, simulated irrigation
case the solution is an approximation of reality, but is quicker performance, volume balance and the runoff hydrograph.
compared to the full set of the Saint Venant equations. The
volume balance models only use the continuity equation (Eqn. B. WinSRFR
1) as it is the dominant of the two equations (Raine and Smith
WinSRFR is the latest of a series of surface irrigation
2007) and is the simplest approximation of the Saint Venant
hydraulic simulation models developed by the USDA-
equations (McClymont 2007).
Agricultural Research Service. It is an integration of the
surface irrigation (basin, border and furrow) program SRFR,
C. Soil infiltration characteristic level basin design program BASIN (Clemmens et al. 1995)
The rate of flow of water along the surface is affected by and sloping border-strip program BORDER ( Strelkoff et al.
the magnitude of infiltration or entry of water into the soil 1996). This new program also contains additional features and
profile. The higher the infiltration rate, the slower the advance is Windows based.
of water down the bay or furrow and rapid recession. The
infiltration characteristic of the soil is therefore a key variable Unlike SIRMOD, WinSRFR employs simplified forms of
that determines the performance of a surface irrigation the momentum equation (i.e., the zero-inertia or kinematic-
application system (Raine and Smith 2007). The most wave models). This modelling technique has been found by
commonly used model to describe the soil infiltration USDA-ALARC (2009) to be sufficiently accurate when used
characteristic for surface irrigation is the Kostiakov-Lewis under the right conditions and is also computationally faster.
equation: The program’s four hydraulic functionalities (known as
WinSRFR Worlds) are event analysis, simulation, physical
design and operational analysis (Fig. 2).
(3)

SREC2010-F3-2 2
 The first function evaluates the performance of an C. Recent Australian models
irrigation event based on measured data and estimates the soil Development of improved simulation tools has long been
infiltration characteristics necessary for the simulation the objective of the irrigation research at USQ. FIDO
process. The simulation outputs include the advance and (McClymont et al. 1999) was an attempt to develop the
recession trajectories, flow and depth hydrographs and the complete furrow irrigation model, based on the full
final infiltration profile. The physical design function is used hydrodynamic equations, capable of parameterisation,
for the optimisation of the physical dimensions of the surface simulation and optimisation. Never completed for commercial
irrigation system while the operational analysis function is release it none-the-less provided the basis for:
used to determine the best combination of the management
practices (inflow and time to cut off). • IrriProb (Gillies et al. 2008) which has the
capability to simulate multiple furrows and
WinSRFR 3.1 is downloadable from the internet free of
optimise performance at the scale of the whole
charge (http://www.ars.usda.gov/services/software.htm). The
field, and
software is used by researchers and farmers in the US, but
there is little indication of its application in the Australian
irrigation industry.

SREC2010-F3-2 3
 • SISCO (Gillies et al. 2010) which is the (6)
realisation of the FIDO objective for both furrow
and bay systems.
SISCO as the basis for the real time simulation and control is
discussed later in this paper. The main factors that impact on the performance of surface
irrigation can be categorised as design, soil and management
An interesting attempt to find an analytic solution to the variables. Design variables include the longitudinal slope of
kinematic wave approximation resulted in the development of the field which affects both the rate of advance and recession
the AIM model (Austin and Prendergast 1997). Developed and the length of the furrow which determines the flow rate
specifically for bay irrigation of cracking clay soils, AIM is required. The infiltration characteristic of the soil determines
simple to use but under certain conditions suffers from the rate of infiltration of water into the soil and hence controls
unacceptable inaccuracy. As a consequence adoption of AIM both the rate of advance and recession of water down the
has been low. AIM was used recently in the IIC (intelligent furrow or bay. The depth of application, furrow flow rate and
irrigation controller) in a trial at an automated border-check time to cut off are management variables. In many cases, time
farm in Dookie, Northern Victoria (Dassanayake et al. 2009). to cut-off is the only quantity that can be varied to achieve a
This is a relatively new development in surface irrigation, and desired level of irrigation performance (Raine and Smith
there is no evidence of significant adoption at present. 2007).

IV. IMPACT OF SIMULATION MODELLING IN THE IRRIGATION B. Sample simulation

INDUSTRY Data collected for an on-going project at USQ aimed at
modernising furrow irrigation was used to illustrate simulation
A. Overview modelling in surface systems. The field sites were located at
Irrigation water is used in circumstances where rainwater furrow-irrigated commercial cotton properties in Dalby and
is insufficient to satisfy the moisture requirements of plants. the Gwydir Valley (Table 1).
The primary goal of an irrigation application system is to Two irrigation events were monitored at each site (G1 and
uniformly supply the required amount of water which is often G2 for the Gwydir and D1 and D2 for the Dalby trials sites).
a difficult task in surface systems. The level of achievement of IRRIMATETM tools were used to measure the flow rates and
the goal of an irrigation application system is termed irrigation monitor the advance of water down the furrow while the soil
performance. Performance measures commonly used in infiltration characteristics (Fig. 3) were estimated using
surface irrigation are (i) application efficiency (AE) (ii) IPARM (Gillies et al. 2005).
requirement efficiency (RE) and (iii) distribution uniformity
(DU). These infiltration characteristics were used in SIRMOD II
to evaluate the performance of the irrigation events as per the
AE is a measure of the proportion of water made available usual management practices of the irrigators (Table 2). The
for plant use during an irrigation process and is defined as: irrigation deficits used in this illustration were estimated by
the irrigators. The evaluation suggested that the AE for the
four irrigation events ranged from 50.4 to 79.1 %. A volume
(4) of 1.04 ML/ha and 1.25 ML/ha were applied in the Gwydir
Valley and Dalby trial sites respectively.
RE is an indication of how well the water requirements An investigation was then undertaken to evaluate the
have been met and is defined as: benefits of irrigation optimisation using SIRMOD II. In this
case the strategy used was a reduction of inflow time while
ensuring that the water reached the bottom end of the field.
(5) This clearly leads to an increase in the AE and a decrease of
the RE and DU. A compromise was achieved by setting the
lower limit of RE at 80%. In addition to the improved AE, the
optimised results suggest water savings of 0.164 – 0.327
ML/ha (Table 3) were possible. There was also a reduction of
DU is the measure of the evenness of water application across runoff.
the field and is usually expressed as:

Table 1 Field characteristics

Site Furrow geometry (m)
Top width Middle width Depth Bottom width Furrow length Furrow slope (%)
Gwydir Valley 0.75 0.51 0.125 0.3 1000 0.1
Dalby 0.6 0.437 0.102 0.273 440 0.2

SREC2010-F3-2 4
 Table 2 Summary of measured irrigation performance characteristics

Site Flow rate Time to Deficit AE RE DU Vol. applied Run off

(l/s) cutoff (min) (mm) (%) (%) (%) (ML/ha) (ML/ha)
Gwydir Valley
G1 3.21 540 60 57.7 85.7 94.6 1.04 0.440
G2 3.21 540 60 50.4 87.3 98.5 1.04 0.516
Dalby
D1 2.7 680 100 79.1 99.0 83.7 1.25 0.083
D2 2.7 680 100 79.1 99.1 83.8 1.25 0.084

Table 3 Optimised irrigation performances

Site Time to AE RE DU Vol. applied Saving Run off
cutoff (min) (%) (%) (%) (ML/ha) (ML/ha) (ML/ha)
Gwydir Valley
G1 370 67.9 80.7 93.1 0.713 0.327 0.228
G2 450 55.6 80.3 98.2 0.867 0.173 0.384
Dalby
D1 590 88.0 95.6 75.5 1.086 0.164 0.00114
D2 590 88.1 95.7 75.7 1.086 0.164 0.00114

C. Previous studies Spatial variability is primarily attributable to the

Published data detailing water savings and increased differences in the soil physical and chemical properties while
efficiency through farm redesign and change of management temporal variability may be as a result of farming systems or
practices are summarised in Table 4. moisture content differences. Infiltration variability causes
non-uniformity in water absorption rates and furrow stream
V. PROPOSED REAL-TIME CONTROL SOFTWARE
advance rates (Trout 1990). It follows that the soil infiltration
characteristics obtained at any particular time of the season
A. Infiltration variability and real-time control may not be adequate for use in the simulations to predict
irrigation performance for later irrigations. To achieve the
All the simulation models in surface irrigation including desired depth of application and uniformity, irrigators tend to
SIRMOD, WinSRFR, and SISCO use historical data to predict increase the application times, often leading to deep drainage
performance of future irrigations. However, infiltration mostly in the upstream end of the field and runoff from the
characteristics of the soil in an irrigated field vary both with downstream end. Trout (1990) and Gillies (2008) concluded
respect to time and space (for example Smith et. al. 2007; that infiltration variability significantly reduces irrigation
Gillies 2008; Walker 1989; Emilio et al. 1997). water use efficiency.

SREC2010-F3-2 5
 Table 4 Published data on the benefits of simulation modelling
Source Location Application Simulation Strategy used Benefits
system tool
Decrease furrow Decrease of volume applied
Raine and Burdekin River
Furrow SIRMOD length from 600 to from 1.78 to 1.03
Shannon 1996 Delta
300m ML/ha/irrigation
Real Time Intelligent
Dassanayake et Optimised cut off 38% water saving over
Dookie, Victoria Border Irrigation Controller
al. 2009 time conventional irrigation
(ARTIIC)
Increased flow rate
Langat and Raine Bura Irrigation Increased AE from 79.4 to
Furrow SIRMOD and optimised cut
2006 Scheme, Kenya 87.5%.
off time
Optimised siphon
Queensland, New Water saving of 0.15
Raine et al. 2005 Furrow SIRMOD flow rates and time
South Wales ML/ha/irrigation
to cut off
Increased flow
Southern AE increased from average
Smith et al. 2005 Furrow SIRMOD rates, reduced
Queensland of 48% to 85-95%.
inflow times
Increased flow
Montgomery and Gwydir and Water saving of
Furrow SIRMOD rates, reduced
Wigginton 2008 Namoi Valley 0.18ML/ha/irrigation
inflow times
Goulburn Murray
Shorter irrigation
Irrigation District
Smith et al. 2009 Border SIRMOD/SISCO times and higher Gain in AE of 19%
(GMID)
flow rates
Doubling flow rate Water savings of 0.256
SIRMOD/SISCO/
Gillies et al. 2010 GMID Border (from 0.132 to ML/ha/irrigation (19%
IPARM
0.268 ML/day/m). increase in AE).

Real-time control has been proposed for the management Q o t − σ y Ao x

of temporal variability of infiltration characteristics (for F =
example Emilio et al. 1997; Mailhol & Gonzalez 1993; Khatri f tx (7)
& Smith 2006; Turral 1996). In this approach the infiltration σ z kt a x + o
characteristics are measured, analysed and used to make
1+ r
decisions for the current irrigation event. A simulation model
suitable for real-time control of surface irrigation must be able where Qo is the inflow rate for the corresponding furrow
to obtain infiltration estimates in the shortest time possible and (m3/min), Ao is the cross-sectional area of the flow at the
use the results to optimise that particular irrigation event. upstream end of the field (m2), t is the time (min) for the
advance to reach the distance x (m) for the corresponding
B. Model description furrow, σy (dimensionless) is the surface storage shape factor,
As part of an on-going project at USQ aimed at and σz (dimensionless) is the sub-surface shape factor and is
modernising the furrow system, a computer simulation model defined as:
for adaptive real-time control is currently under development.
Although the model is initially being developed for use in
automated furrow systems, only minor modifications will be a + r (1 − a ) + 1
necessary before it can be applied in bay and basin irrigation σ z = (8)
systems. Gated layflat fluming with an automatic valve at the (1 + a )(1 + r )
upstream end will be used to deliver water to individual
furrows in the automated system. A pressure sensor will be
attached to the layflat to give continuous inference of flow rate where r is the exponent from the power curve advance
using the Gpipe program (Smith 1990). A water sensor placed function x = p(t)r for the model furrow. The inflow rate will be
midway down the furrow will send signals to the controller via inferred from the continuous pressure monitoring in the
telemetry. fluming. The scaling factor is then applied to the Kostiakov-
Lewis equation to obtain the scaled infiltration curves for the
A scaling technique proposed by Khatri and Smith (2006) whole field:
will be used to reduce the amount of data required to acquire
the infiltration characteristics of the soil. The approach
assumes that the shape of the infiltration characteristic for a I s = F ( kτ a + f oτ ) (9)
particular field or soil is relatively constant despite variations
in magnitudes of the infiltration rate or depth of infiltration. where Is is the scaled infiltration (m3/m), a, k, fo are the
A representative furrow in the field is selected and infiltration parameters of the model furrow. Only one advance
evaluated over an irrigation event, and the model infiltration point approximately midway down the furrow will be required
curve is obtained using the Kostiakov-Lewis equation. A in this process. The scaled infiltration characteristics obtained
scaling factor (F) is formulated for each furrow or event from from this approach are then used in a simulation and
a re-arrangement of the volume balance model (as used by optimisation process to determine the time to cut-off the
Elliot and Walker (1982): inflow.

SREC2010-F3-2 6
 The proposed software uses the SISCO simulation engine This paper has shown that there are prospects of increase
which is based on the complete hydrodynamic equations and in water use efficiency and water savings by using simulation
provides a suitable platform for computer programs founded modelling. Water savings of 400 GL and an increase in water
on real time control concept. The simulations will be run over use efficiency of 10% over a 16 year period in the cotton
a range of feasible cut-off times. A user-defined optimisation industry in Australia has been reported by BDA Group (2007).
routine will be used to determine the optimal time to cut off.
The conceptual design of the new simulation model in The conceptual design of a simulation model being
presented in Fig. 4. developed at USQ as part of an on-going project on furrow
automation has been presented. The model utilises adaptive
real time control concept and is expected to overcome the
VI. CONCLUSIONS problem of soil infiltration temporal and spatial variability.
Computer simulation modelling is used both for design
and management purposes in surface irrigation systems.
Simulation models help irrigators make informed decisions
concerning their irrigation practices. SIRMOD and WinSRFR
appear to be the most widely used simulation tools in
Australia and the US respectively.

SREC2010-F3-2 7
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