Optimal Design of Border Irrigation Systems

Using a surface irrigation hydraulics simulation model, relationships were developed between water requirement efficiency and the system design variables. A crop production function was utilized to relate crop yield to the water requirement efficiency. Gross returns from the crop, and the costs of water, labor, ditch construction and crop production were considered in the optimization problem. Several system constraints were incorporated into the design process. The generalized geometric programming technique was applied to the optimal design of border and basin irrigation systems. The design variables were: the length of run, inflow rate into the border, time of inflow, number of lengths of run, width of the border, and the number of border widths in the field.