Modeling for Various Design Options of a Canal System

Irrigated agriculture is backbone of economy in many countries worldwide, including Pakistan with its large irrigation system. Systemic Enhancements are periodically implemented to improve the performance of the system. In this paper the performance of canals has been investigated for various operations. Data regarding discharge of outlets and the canals was collected by field measurements. Crop-water requirements, bed slope of canals, cross-sectional details, longitudinal profile and outlet details, were obtained from the Irrigation Department. It was noticed that the performance of canals is not satisfactory under prevailing conditions. Different operational strategies for change of unlined to lined conditions, different discharge conditions and outlet dimensions were evaluated using CanalMan model. It was established through extensive research that the performance of the canals can be improved by lining and changing outlet dimensions. Modified dimensions of outlets for better performance were estimated by iterative method of optimization. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2012