Effect of on time and late operation of canal structures on equitable and sustainable water distribution

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

• Kazem Shahverdi ¹
• Hesam Ghodousi ²
• Farshad Dosti ³

¹ Department of water engineering, university of bu ali sina

² Department of Water Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Zanjan , Zanjan, Iran

³ Department of Water Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture, Zanjan University, Zanjan, Iran

Abstract

Keywords

• E1R1 canal
• HEC-RAS
• ICSS
• performance evaluation

Main Subjects

• سازه‌های آبی

Effect of on time and late operation of canal structures for equitable and sustainable water distribution

Introduction:

Water shortage is a serious problem in most parts of the world today. Since Iran is located in a dry and semi-arid climate, the water crisis is one of its most important issue. Therefore, attempts are necessary to improve water efficiency. The main role of irrigation and drainage networks is delivering and distributing irrigation water.

Purpose:

Investigations into the performance of water conveyance, distribution, and delivery management in different irrigation networks show that the performance of most irrigation and drainage networks are inadequate. In this research, the effect of the on-time and late operation on canals’ performance was examined using the E1R1 canal of the Dez network.

Research method:

To achieve the objective, we specified different scenarios, and the HEC-RAS and ICSS hydrodynamic models were employed to simulate the canal. To conduct the research, the hydraulic and geometry data of the E1R1 canal were gathered, and the HEC-RAS and ICSS models of the canal were prepared accordingly, with scenarios. The scenarios were as positive and negative waves applied from the canal inlet. The flow was increased from 1 m³/s to 1.2 m³/s to generate a positive wave and from 1.5 m³/s to 1.2 m³/s to generate a negative wave.

Results:

The findings of this research showed that the operation time is too crucial and should be determined exactly. Comparing the results of three different methods for determination showed that it takes a significant amount of time to reach complete increased or decreased waves; hence it is better to operate the structure based on the operator vehicle speed, which is considered as 30 km/hr. The performance of the E1R1 canal improves remarkably as the operation is done on time rather than late. In different scenarios, the equity index increased from 0.4, 0.71, 0.32, and 0.78 to 0.07, 0.01, 0.09, and 0.01, respectively, ultimately reaching the desired value of zero. Although the dependability index is similar to the equity index, this index is slightly better than the equity in the case of late operation. In general, these results show the importance of on-time operation on the performance of the canal, resulting in efficiency, adequacy, equity, and dependability indices of 0.93, 0.98, 0.09, and 0.08, respectively, in the worst condition of on-time operation. The results also demonstrated that the HEC-RAS model outperformed the ICSS model slightly, and it is user-friendly.

Conclusion:

According to the results, the on-time operation is too crucial for increasing the performance of irrigation canals that should be considered. The results revealed that the performance of the E1R1 canal improves remarkably as the operation is done on time rather than late.