The course aims to give the student the information required for the irrigation practice at farm scale. Water and energy saving are goals to be achieved through the design and the management of the irrigation practice, by using design support software and techniques for managing limited water supplies, together with the use of natural precipitations.
Allen R.G., Pereira L.S., Raes D., Smith M.: Crop evapotranspiration-guidelines for computing crop water requirements, FAO Irrigation and drainage paper n.56, Roma, 1998.
Capra A., Scicolone B.: Progettazione e gestione degli impianti di irrigazione, Edagricole, Bologna, 2007.
Doorenbos J., Pruitt W.O.: Crop water requirements, FAO Irrigation and drainage paper n.24, Roma, 1977.
Falciai M.: Elementi di idraulica generale, ed. Teorema, 1974, Firenze.
Falciai M.: Tecnica dell’irrigazione, ed. CUSL Firenze, 1993.
Ghinassi G.: Manual for performance evaluation of sprinkler and drip irrigation systems, ICID publication No. 94, New Delhi, 2008.
Rieul L., Ruelle P. (coordination): Irrigation - Guide pratique, Cemagref Editions, 2003.
Teaching aids supplied by the teacher
Learning Objectives
Knolewdge acquired: the course comprises lectures aiming at supplying the student with the knowledge required for irrigation practices at field scale.
Competence acquired at the end of the course: knowledge on soil hydrology, hydrological balance and evapotranspiration methods. Knowledge on design and check criteria of pressurized irrigation systems, irrigation management, water and energy saving techniques, rainwater collection techniques. Knowledge on the elements characterizing the hydrological response (inflow/outflow dynamics) of a catchment. Knowledge of methods for processing rainfall data.
Skills acquired at the end of the course: describe the hydrological balance and the irrigation parameters, design and manage pressurized irrigation systems (sprinkler and micro), practice irrigation under conditions of limited water supply; capability to describe and quantify the main hydrological events at basin scale, understanding water control activities and design criteria of expected hydraulic works.
Prerequisites
Students are expected to be familiar with the principles of mathematics and physics.
Teaching Methods
CFU: 6
Total hours of the course (including the time spent in attending lectures, seminars, private study, examinations, etc...): 48
Contact hours for: Lectures (hours): 26
Contact hours for: Laboratory-field/practice (hours): 20
Intermediate examinations: 2
Type of Assessment
Exam modality: oral examination on the subjects of lectures and laboratory
Assessment: approach to actual case studies; correct use of technical language.
Course program
Physical entities and measurement.
Basic hydraulics:
Hydrostatics: force over vertical and inclined surfaces
Hydrodynamics: flow type, continuity equation, Bernoulli equation. Viscosity. Newton equation. Friction losses.
Classification of spillways, discharge measurement.
Open channel flows: check and design.
Pressurized flows: design of gravity and water lifting (waterworks) systems; characteristics of the centrifugal pumps.
Basic hydrology - Hydrological cycle. Physical and morphometric characterization of catchment watershed. Concentration time. Rainfall formation, characteristics and measurement. Rainfall forecast. Evaluation of surface flow. Inflow/outflow dynamics.
Irrigation principles- Soil hydrology. Saturation, field capacity, refilling point, permanent wilting point. Infiltration rate. Soil water movement.
Design criteria for pressurized irrigation systems. Sprinkler and localized irrigation. Selection of irrigation equipment. Selection of pipe diameter and pump type. Distribution uniformity indicators (DU, CU) and application efficiency (AE). Performance evaluation of pressurized irrigation systems. Surface irrigation methods.
Design and management criteria aiming at water and energy saving. Deficit irrigation principles.