Critical Water Velocity for Snail Habitats in Canals
Publication: Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 110, Issue 1
Abstract
A design velocity was determined to prevent disease-bearing snails from inhabiting irrigation canals. In tropical irrigation systems many people in the argicultural community are infected with a parasitic disease spread by aquatic snails living in the canals and reservoirs. The disease, bilharzia (schistosomiasis) can have a serious impact on agricultural productivity as well as being a general health problem, thus it is of concern to engineers and agricultural planners. High flow velocities have been suggested as a means of eliminating snails from canals, thus data from existing canals were collected to verify predictions made from hydrodynamic considerations. A study of the Patillas Irrigation Canal in Puerto Rico showed that populations of the local bilharzia snail Biomphalaria glabrata, would be overpowered by mean water velocities greater than 2 ft/s (0.6 m/s), the velocity at which the compulsive forward motion of the snail against the current was halted. This confirmed theoretical calculations for the canals of this size.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
1.
Jobin, W., and Ippen, A., “Ecological Design of Irrigation Canals for Snail Control,” Science, 145, Sept. 18, 1964, pp. 1324–1326.
2.
Paulini, E., “Field Observations on the Upstream Migration of Australorbis glabratus,” Bulletin of the World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland 29, 1963, pp. 838–841.
3.
Ritchie, L., et al., “Population Dynamics of Australorbis glabratus in Puerto Rico,” Bulletin of World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland 27, 1962, pp. 171–181.
4.
Venard, J. K., Elementary Fluid Mechanics, 3rd ed., John Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York, N.Y., 1954, 401 p.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Copyright
Copyright © 1984 ASCE.
History
Published online: Feb 1, 1984
Published in print: Feb 1984
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.