CE 471: IRRIGATION AND

DRAINAGE ENGINEERING

PART 1
 ASSIGNMENT No 1.
Assess comprehensively
urban/peri-urban irrigation in
Ghana: Study of Kumasi

Last date of submission: 4:00 pm, Friday, 28th

September, 2018.
• Students into groups (a group of about
ten) for design assignment
 THE AIM OF CE 471
• Students to be aware of the National Irrigation
Policy, Strategies and Regulatory Measures.

• Acquaint students with the demand for water and

use of water in irrigated agriculture so as to
understand the scope of issues relating to water
resources planning.

• Students to be able to conduct supporting

calculations for water resources studies.
Water and the Plant (Source: FAO, 1998)
Typical Irrigation scheme
Typical Irrigation scheme
TONO IRRIGATION PROJECT
Typical Irrigation scheme
VEA IRRIGATION PROJECT
 INTRODUCTION
DEFINITION

What is irrigation?
Irrigation is the science of applying water to plants for its
growth and maturity.
Applying water to soil will fulfill the following purpose of
irrigation:
➢ Ensure enough moisture essential for the plant growth.
➢ Provide crop insurance against short duration drought.
➢ Create suitable environment for plant growth by
cooling the soil and atmosphere.
➢ Wash out or dilute harmful salt in the soil.
➢ Reduce hazards of soil piping.
➢ Soften the tillage pans and clods.
NECESSITY OF IRRIGATION
All crops require certain amount of water during

Land preparation

Sowing

Growth

Maturity
NECESSITY OF IRRIGATION

➢ Irrigation is therefore required under the following

conditions:

When the total amount of rainfall is less than the

amount of water required by the plant to mature.

When the amount of rainfall is sufficient but its

distribution does not coincide with the schedule
of supply required by the plant.
SCOPE OF IRRIGATION
➢ Irrigation Engineering does not only mean application of
water to the plant.

➢ The Irrigation Engineer is to perform the following

functions:
Computation of available water resources.
Water storage.
Conveyance.
Distribution.
Drainage of excess water.
Protection against flood, etc.
SCOPE

➢ Irrigation is inter-disciplinary, hence it requires the

knowledge of the following subjects:

Hydrology
Hydraulics
Soil science
Soil mechanics
Botany
Geography
Social science, etc
 BENEFITS
➢ Broadly divided into two groups:
Direct Benefits :-
❖ Increase in quantum of foodgrains, fibre,
oilseeds, vegetables, timber, fruits, etc

❖ Water access

Indirect Benefits :-
❖ Increased value of property
❖ Employment opportunity
❖ Recreational facilities
TYPES OF IRRIGATION DEVELOPMENT
➢ Storage-type Development :- Water can be stored in
reservoirs by constructing dams across rivers, in tanks
and lakes as well as underground reservoirs (sand
dams)

❖ Method of storing water will depend on the

following factors:
Topography.
Soil conditions.
Subsoil conditions.
➢ Diversion-type Development:-

This is possible when water in the river (stream) is

perennial and has enough flow during the dry weather
season.

Flow can be diverted into an irrigation canal by the

construction of diversion weirs across the river,

❑ The primary function of the weir is to obstruct the

flow, raise the level of water surface so as to
irrigate by gravity
 Rectangular Spillway

Spillway for irrigation project at Nobewam, Ghana

➢ Combined Storage and Diversion-type Developments

❖Reservoirs are constructed in the hilly areas for

storing water, and weirs are constructed in the plane
for picking the flow released from single or multiple
reservoirs and diverting the water to the agricultural
land.

➢ River Pumping
❖Pumps (electrical or diesel) are used to divert water
from the rivers (streams) to the irrigation land.
➢ Groundwater resources Development:-
❖Groundwater is the water that is found under the
surface of the ground.
✓ The development of groundwater resources is by the
construction of shallow or deep wells or by underground
cut-off (raising the natural water table by obstructing the
groundwater flow). It has the following advantages:

❖ Helps in the exploitation of water resources lying

underground

❖ Evaporation loss from underground storage is minimal

❖ Cost of conveyance may not be high.

➢ Reclamation of waste water and sewage

➢ Sea water development

BASIC DATA COLLECTION
For the design and construction of any irrigation
scheme, a variety of data needs to be collected
relating to:

➢ Land and soil

➢ Topography
➢ Geology
➢ Rainfall and climate
➢ Crop
➢ Market
➢ Transportation
➢ Socio-economic conditions, etc.
WATER REQUIREMENT OF CROPS
Water and the Plant (Source: FAO, 1998)
SOIL CLASSIFICATION
Depending on the percentage content of CLAY (particle
size < 0.002), SILT (0.002 to 0.06) and SAND (0.06 to
2 mm), soils can be classified into the following three
broad groups

Percentage content of:

Soil Texture
Clay Silt Sand

Clayey soil 50 30 20

Loam soil 20 40 40

Sandy soil 5 (or less) 15 (or less) 80

 Further sub-division based on the variation of clay,
silt and sand:
• Sandy loam
• Silty loam
• Sandy clay
• Silty clay, etc
NOTE

Very fine soil such as clay is not suitable for most

crops as they have very low permeability

Sandy soil is highly permeable and will loss water

through deep percolation
BASIC SOIL PROPERTIES
Texture
It indicates the grain size distribution. Depending on
the texture, soil can be classified as clay, silty clay,
loam, sandy loam, sand, gravel, gravely sand, etc

Structure
It gives a picture of how the cross-section of the soil
particles will look like.

➢ The texture and structure of a soil govern

the storage and movement of water, air
and root into the soil.
Porosity and Void ratio

Va Air

Vw Water Ww Vv
Unit volume

Ws
Vs Solid
Porosity
Porosity (n) is the ratio of the volume of voids to the
total (gross) volume of dry soil.

Vv
n=
Vv + Vs

For unit volume, Vv + Vs =1. n = Vv

Void ratio
Void ratio (e) gives the ratio of volume of voids to
the volume of solid mass of soil.

Vv Vv n
e= = =
Vs 1 − Vv 1 − n

Vv = Va + Vw
The "Statement 28% (n = 0.28) porosity" will refer to
dry soil having 1cc volume, and the volume of voids
as 0.28 cc, with the volume of solid to be 0.72 cc.

0.28
Void ratio, e = = 0.39 or 39 %
0.72

The porosity of a soil determines its water-

holding capacity.
➢ Water-holding capacity of the soil is an
important properties governing irrigation
practice.
Specific Gravity and Unit weight (dry)
If Ws is the weight of solids having volume Vs, then

Ws w is the unit
Real Specific gravity, Rs =
Vs w weight of water

Dry unit weight (s) of soil is the weight of solid per

unit volume.

➢ For unit volume of soil,  s = Ws

Apparent Specific gravity Ws s

As = =
of the soil is defined as: 1  w  w
Note:

Porosity, Apparent specific gravity and Real

specific gravity are related as

As
n =1−
Rs
Soil Moisture (Water) content, (w)

Soil Moisture (water) content, (w) is defined as the

percentage of moisture present per unit dry weight of soil.

Ww
w =  100
Ws
Permeability
It determines the movement of moisture in the soil
pores.
Defined as the volume flow rate per unit area (across
the direction of flow) under unit hydraulic gradient.

Q = KiA
Q = Volume flow rate
i = Hydraulic gradient
A = Cross Sectional area in the direction of flow
K = Coefficient of permeability, [L]/[T]
 The hydraulic gradient indicates the rate of head loss.
h
i=
x
h = Loss in the piezometric head
x = Elementary length of the soil sample

Coefficient of permeability of common soil varieties

Clayey soil 310-5 cm/sec and less

Loam soil 15010-5 cm/sec (approx.)
Sandy soil 75010-5 cm/sec and higher
Infiltration or Intake

It is the rate at which, water applied to the soil will

penetrate into the soil.

It will depend on the:

➢ Vertical permeability

➢ Initial soil moisture content

Depth of soil and Root zone depth
Depth of soil is the thickness of the top strata of soil
on which plants can be grown.
➢ It is classified as
❖ Shallow
❖ Medium
❖ Deep
➢ Deep soil with a medium texture and loose
structure will:
❖ Permits plants to root deeply
❖ Provide for the storage of large volume of water in
the root zone depth
❖ Can sustain plants growth for a longer period in
between two consecutive irrigation
➢ Shallow soils require more frequent irrigation
resulting in loss of water due to evaporation.

Root Zone Depth: It is that depth of the soil into which

plant roots penetrate and extract moisture and nutrients for
its growth.
➢ Depth of soil is fixed, but Root zone depth increases with
increase in the age of the plant

Depth and Frequency of irrigation:

➢ Governed by the root zone depth.
➢ Early stages, when roots are short, the depth of irrigation
application should be small to provide moisture to the RZD
Plant-Soil-Atmosphere relation
Consider a Typical Field Crop
 Plant-Soil-Atmosphere relation in
summary

This can be summarized as

PLANT needs water to grow; The SOIL stores the

water needed by the plant; and the ATMOSPHERE
provides the energy needed by the plant to withdraw
water from the soil.
• The Plant
About 80 to 95 % of a physically active plant is
water

The Plant requires water for processes such as:

Digestion

Photosynthesis

Transport of minerals

Structural support

Growth

Transpiration
❖ The plant uses water primarily for
TRANSPIRATION

❖ Transpiration accounts for about 99 % of the

water used by the plant.

❖ Transpiration involves the conversion of water

from the liquid to vapour phase within the plant and
its transport through stomata of the leaf into the
atmosphere.
 The plant extracts water from the soil to replenish
water lost by transpiration.

Water normally moves through the soil into the

roots up the xylem and into the leaves, due to a
water potential gradient between the leaf and the
soil.

This process is called PASSIVE ADSORBTION.

 The Soil

• The soil stores water needed by the plant.

• Matric force (Adsorptive and Capillary forces) hold

water, in the voids between individual soil particles
which can be removed and used by the plant.
• Matric Force must be overcome to remove water
from the soil.

• The minimum force required to remove water from

the soil varies with the amount of water in the soil.

• As the voids between the soil particles are filled

with water and the soil approaches saturation, the
Matric Force holding water in the soil approaches
ZERO.
• Conversely as the water content of the soil
approaches ZERO, the value of the Matric Force
approaches infinity Negatively .
• Thus it is much easier for plants to obtain water
when the soil is moist than when it is dry.
• Between saturation and absolutely dry soil, there
are two important soil water contents suitable to
the plant

- Field capacity (upper limits) FC or fc

- Permanent wilting point (lower limits)
WP or pwp
➢ Water content of the soil at FIELD
CAPACITY is less than saturation.
➢ Water content of the soil at PERMANENT
WILTING POINT is not absolutely dry.
• Consider a completely saturated root zone of
soil (all voids within root zone are filled with
water). That the root zone is receiving as much
water as it is loosing.

• Assume inflow to the soil stops.

➢ Flow from soil continues: Gravitational force

exceeds the Matric force tending to hold water
in the soil

➢ As soil dewaters, the Matric force will steadily

increase to contribute to the steady decline in
outflow rate.
➢ Process of dewatering will continues until the rate of
water movement through the soil becomes negligible.

❖The water content of the soil at this stage is Field

Capacity
Field Capacity (FC):
➢ It is the moisture content of the soil, above which water will
freely drain out from soil under gravity (i.e., the maximum
moisture content that can be retained in soil pores (by
capillary action) against gravity pull).
➢ Any water above the Field capacity, will be loss as far as
the plant is concerned.
➢ From Field Capacity, Evaporation and
Transpiration , dewater the soil.
Hence:
• Soil Matric force increases.
• It becomes increasingly difficult for the plant
to remove water from the soil.
• When the plant is unable to remove any more
water, it permanently wilts.

❖ The soil moisture content at this point is

Permanent wilting point.
 Wilting Point (WP):
➢ It is the soil moisture content below which the plant will
wilt and cannot be brought back to life even if water is
added later to increase the soil moisture content.

❖ The water content of a soil, supporting the

plant should not be depleted below the
wilting point.

❖ This can lead to the permanent loss of

plant life.
• Water left in the soil when the permanent wilting
point is reached is not available to plant. Most of
this water is held by the Adsorptive force and is
called HYGROSCOPIC WATER.

❖ Water between Field Capacity and the

permanent wilting point is the water that is
available to the plant.

❖ It is called the TOTAL AVAILABLE WATER

(TAW).

TAW = FC − WP
 s
TAW = 1000 ( FC − WP ) Drz , mm
w
 s - Unit weight of soil

 w - Unit weight of water

Drz – Depth of root zone, m

Ww
w = 100
Ws
 Saturation
Gravity water
1 (not available to plant)
Field Capacity
Capillary water (available
2 moisture content or (TAW))
Wilting Point

Hygroscopic water
3
(not available to plant)
Plants theoretically obtain water from the soil
whenever water content exceed PWP, but the actual
rate of transpiration will decrease as stomata close in
response to declining soil water content.

It has been established that the growth and yield of the

plant get severely hampered when the TAW is depleted
below certain soil moisture limit c (Called ‘Critical Soil
moisture’).
Soil moisture between fc and c is called Readily
Available water, (RAW). RAW =  fc − c
s
RAW = 1000 ( f c − θc ) Drz , mm
w
Depth of Soil Moisture
If the root zone depth of soil is Drz, then the volume of
soil per unit area of field surface will be given by

V = Drz 1

The dry weight (Ws) of this volume of soil will be

given by
Ws = Drz   s
If d is the depth of the soil moisture available for plant
use, then the weight of moisture per unit area (Ww)
will be given by
Ww = (d 1) w =  w  d
The percentage moisture content (w) available for
plant use is given by

Ww  wd
w =  100 =  100
Ws  s Drz

Hence the depth (d ) of the soil moisture available for

plant use is:

w
s  w As Drz
d=   Drz = , [L]
100  w 100
 The Atmosphere
The Atmosphere provides the energy needed by the
plants to withdraw water from the soil. If soil moisture is
not limiting and stomata are fully open, conditions in
the atmosphere control the RATE OF TRANSPIRATION.

❖ The important atmospheric factors that affect

transpiration are:

➢ Humidity of the air surrounding the plant,

➢ The air Temperature,
➢ Humidity of air carried to the plant by wind,
➢ The net Radiation available to the plant.
Question (Submit: 5th October, 2018)
Water was applied to the field having clay loamy as soil type.
Determine the depth of soil moisture at field Capacity of
the soil with the following data :
DATA:
Depth of root zone = (3rd+4th+5th)*100 mm
Existing water content = 3 %
Dry density of soil = 1.5 g/cm3
Unit weight of soil moisture = 1.0 g/cm3
Quantity of water applied to the field = (5rd+6th+7th)*100 m3
Water loss in evaporation = (2rd+3th) %
Area of the field plot = (2rd+3th+4th)*100 m2
Assume that no water loss due to deep percolation.
CROP WATER REQUIREMENT
Evapotranspiration (ET) [mm/d]:

➢ Evapotranspiration of a crop is the total amount of

water lost from the soil through the plant
(TRANSPIRATION) and through direct contact of the
soil (FIELD) with the air (EVAPORATION).

❖ Transpiration is considered PRODUCTIVE WATER.

❖ Evaporation - NON-PRODUCTIVE WATER.

Influencing Factors
➢ Evapotranspiration from the soil will depend on

❖ Availability of water in the topsoil,

❖ Solar radiation reaching the soil surface.

➢ Growth stages: As crop grows, the crop canopy

develops and shades the ground area hence
Evapotranspiration changes.
➢ Evapotranspiration also depends on Management and
Environmental conditions:

❖ Soil salinity,

❖ Poor land fertility,

❖ Limited application of fertilizer,

❖ Poor soil conditions,

❖ Absence of control of diseases and pests.

➢ Evapotranspiration can be influenced through
management practices such as:

❖ Systems of mulching

❖ Intercropping

❖ Increasing canopy of the crops grown.

 Consumptive Use and Evapotranspiration

• Consumptive Use (CU):- Water used in all

the plant processes.

• CU exceeds ET by the amount of water used

for all other plants processes.

CU-ET<1%. Hence CU  ET
Potential Evapotranspiration (PET):-
Evapotranspiration, when water is sufficiently
available to completely meet the needs of
vegetation fully covering the ground.

Actual Evapotranspiration (AET):- Real

evapotranspiration occurring in a specific
situation.

When water supply to the plant (Field) is

adequate, soil moisture will be at field capacity
and hence AET will be equal to PET.

(AET/PET=1).
• If Water supply becomes less, the soil dries
and the ratio AET/PET < 1.

• Decrease of the ratio with available moisture

depends on the type of soil and rate of drying.

• For Clayey soil, AET/PET = 1.0 for nearly

50% drop in available moisture.

• When Soil Moisture is at permanent wilting

point, AET reduces to zero (AET = 0)
 Evapotranspiration Units

Depth Volume per unit Energy per unit area

area for water with a
density of 1000 kg/m3
at 20 C
mm day-1 m3ha-1day- l s-1ha-1 MJm-2day-1
1

1 mm day-1 1 10 0.116 2.45

1 m3ha-1day-1 0.1 1 0.012 0.245

1 l s-1ha-1 8.640 86.40 1 21.17

1 MJm-2day-1 0.408 4.082 0.047 1