Suchergebnisse

10 Pags.- 1 Tabl. ; [ES] La eco-eficiencia de una determinada actividad se puede expresar como la relación entre el impacto ambiental que ocasiona y el valor añadido que produce. Desde inicios de los años noventa del siglo pasado el concepto de eco-eficiencia ha tenido un rápido desarrollo en el ámbito político. Además se ha desarrollado una intensa actividad científica acerca de la eco-eficiencia del agua, que no ha penetrado el ámbito del regadío. En este trabajo se realiza una primera aproximación a la eco-eficiencia de los regadíos del valle del Ebro, con la perspectiva temporal del siglo XXI. Esto lleva a considerar fundamentalmente los cambios introducidos por las políticas de modernización de regadíos. Lejos de poder considerar la eco-eficiencia en sentido global, se apuntan tres variables de impacto ambiental: el agua, los fertilizantes y la energía. ; [EN] The eco-efficiency of a particular activity can be expressed as the ratio between its added environmental impact and its added value. Since the early nineties of the last century, the concept of eco-efficiency has experienced rapid development in the political arena. An intense scientific activity can be observed around water eco-efficiency, which has not penetrated the field of irrigation. In this work a preliminary approach to eco-efficiency of irrigation in the Ebro valley is presented, with the time perspective of the 21stcentury. This leads to consider the changes introduced by the Spanish policies of irrigation modernization. Far from considering eco-efficiency in a global sense, three aspects of environmental impact have been used in this work: water, fertilizer and energy. ; Peer reviewed

43 Pag., 7 Fig., 5 Tabl. The definitive version is available at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/03783774 ; Irrigation water use in private landscapes represents an increasing share of total water use in semiarid areas. In this work, 102 households located in the Montecanal neighbourhood (Zaragoza, Spain) were analysed. Research took advantage of the dual water supply network (separate indoor and irrigation water networks). The analysis was based on bi-monthly water billing records for the period 2005–2007. The total household landscape area (93 m2) and the area occupied by turf, trees and shrubs were derived from aerial photographs. A method based on reference evapotranspiration was used to estimate net landscape irrigation requirements. The total average water use was 0.80 m3 household−1 day−1, with irrigation water use amounting to 46% of the total water use. Average air temperature largely determined irrigation water use (the correlation coefficient was 0.958). Overirrigation was common in the three years of study, with the average irrigation water application (IWA) being much higher than the Net Irrigation Requirements (1359 and 555 mm, respectively). Only 34% of the households showed adequate irrigation, while 6% of the households underirrigated their landscape areas. In the rest of the households (60%), overirrigation was observed. Significant time correlations were found for IWA and for an adequacy index, suggesting that landowners applied their inadequate irrigation criteria in a consistent way. Local private landscape irrigation performance was found to be very poor, probably owing to low water cost and over-the-average household income. ; This research was funded by the Ebro Watershed Authority (Confederación Hidrográfica del Ebro) and by the National Research, Development and Innovation Plan of the Government of Spain (Plan Nacional de I + D + i) through grants AGL2007-66716-C03 and CSD2006-00067. ; Peer reviewed

[ES] En la actualidad, existe una gran inquietud entre los agricultores de regadío que ven el fuerte deterioro de sus infraestructuras de riego y la necesidad de modernizar sus sistemas de riego. Por otro lado las Administraciones Públicas (el Gobierno Central y las distintas Comunidades Autónomas) han iniciado unas líneas de ayuda a la modernización de los regadíos. Ante esta situación se está apreciando una gran demanda de información tecnológica por parte de los agricultores, que requieren modernos sistemas de riego automatizados y nuevas herramientas que faciliten su trabajo. El Departamento de Agricultura del Gobierno de Aragón, con cofinanciación de fondos FEOGA, ha puesto en marcha la Oficina del Regante adscrita a la Unidad de Suelos y Riegos del Servicio de Investigación Agroalimentaria del Gobierno de Aragón. El objetivo general de esta Oficina es ayudar a los regantes de Aragón a mejorar el uso del agua, con especial énfasis en su modernización. Desde su creación, en septiembre del año 2001, la Oficina del Regante ha venido desarrollando actividades que suponen una relevante contribución a la sostenibilidad de la agricultura de regadío en Aragón. ; [EN] At present, Aragón in undergoing an important change in irrigation technology and water management. This generates a great demand of technological information by the farmers. The Department of Agriculture of the Government of Aragón and the FEOGA of the European Union, have started up the "hTigation Office", a project assigned to the Soils and Irrigation Department of the Agricultural Research Service of the Government of Aragón. The general aim of the Irrigation Office is to help farmers improve their water use, with emphasis on irrigation modernization. Since it was created in September 2001, the "Irrigation Office" has performed a number of activities of great interest for irrigated agriculture in this region. These activities are a relevant contribution to the sustainability of irrigated agriculture in Aragón. ; Peer reviewed

15 Pags.- 6 Figs.- 4 Tabls. This work was selected by the Organizing Committee of the XXXI Spanish National Irrigation Congress (XXXI Congreso Nacional de Riegos) to be submitted for publication in this journal. ; Ballistic simulation of the spray sprinkler for self-propelled irrigation machines requires the incorporation of the effect of the jet impact with the deflecting plate. The kinetic energy losses produced by the jet impact with the spray plate were experimentally characterized for different nozzle sizes and two working pressures for fixed spray plate sprinklers (FSPS). A technique of low speed photography was used to determine drop velocity at the point where the jet is broken into droplets. The water distribution pattern of FSPS for different nozzle sizes, working at two pressures and under different wind conditions were characterized in field experiments. The ballistic model was calibrated to simulate water distribution in different technical and meteorological conditions. Field experiments and the ballistic model were used to obtain the model parameters (D50, n, K1and K2). The results show that kinetic energy losses decrease with nozzle diameter increments; from 80% for the smallest nozzle diameter (2 mm) to 45% for nozzle diameters larger than 5.1 mm, and from 80% for the smallest nozzle diameter (2 mm) to 34.7% for nozzle diameters larger than 6.8 mm, at 138 kPa and 69 kPa working pressures, respectively. The results from the model compared well with field observations. The calibrated model has reproduced accurately the water distribution pattern in calm (r=0.98) and high windy conditions (r=0.76). A new relationship was found between the corrector parameters (K1' and K2') and the wind speed. As a consequence, model simulation will be possible for untested meteorological conditions. ; This research was funded by the MCINN of the Government of Spain through grants AGL2010-21681-C03-01 and the FPI-MINECO PhD grants program. ; Peer reviewed

39 Paf., 4 Tabl., 5 Fig. The definitive version is available at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/15375110 ; Irrigated agriculture faces intense competition for water in Mediterranean environments. In this paper, alternate furrow irrigation (AFI) was explored for a potato crop in the conditions of the Cherfech irrigation district, located in the Medjerda project of northern Tunisia. A field experiment was performed involving seven furrow irrigations in three irrigation treatments: alternate furrow irrigation, fixed furrow irrigation (FFI), and conventional furrow irrigation (CFI). Crop yield and water productivity were determined in all treatments. The experiment involved detailed irrigation evaluation and soil water measurements in the first three irrigation events. Soil infiltration (estimated with a surface irrigation model) was larger for CFI than for AFI or FFI. This finding was confirmed by the average irrigation depths, which amounted to 65, 60 and 91 mm for the AFI, FFI and CFI treatments, respectively. Application and irrigation efficiency were higher in FFI than in AFI, while in CFI efficiency was much lower. Water productivity (expressed as the ratio of yield to irrigation water) amounted to 8.0, 8.7 and 5.9 kg m−3 for the AFI, FFI and CFI treatments, respectively. Soil water-yield simulations indicated that alternate furrow irrigation did not result in reduced yield, neither for the experimental treatment nor for deficit irrigation scenarios characterised by six or five irrigation events. Alternate furrow irrigation stands as a simple management technique resulting in relevant water conservation in the local conditions. ; This research was partially funded by INRGREF (Tunisia), and by the Agencia Española de Cooperación y Desarrollo (AECID) of the Government of Spain, through grant A/7661/07. ; Peer reviewed

6 Pags., 1 Tabl., 2 Figs. ; Introduction: The application of new technologies to the control and automation of irrigation processes is becoming very important in the last decade. Although automation of irrigation execution (irrigation programmers) is now widespread the automatic generation and execution of irrigation schedules is receiving growing attention due to the possibilities offered by the telemetry / remote control systems currently being installed in collective pressurized networks. In this paper, a prototype autonomous irrigation controller for solid set systems is presented. Material and Methods: The autonomous irrigation controller for solid set sprinkler irrigation systems is composed by software and hardware. The software simulates drop trajectories emitted by each sprinkler (Playán et al., 2006), water distribution in the soil and crop growth and yield (Dechmi et al., 2004, Zapata et al., 2009). Although the model simulates sprinkler water application, the control unit was the irrigated block of the solid set irrigated field. Variability inside an irrigated block was represented by decision variables (irrigation, soil and crop performance indexes) that can control the irrigation timing of the different blocks of the farm. The hardware was a research prototype translating the irrigation schedules into electrical orders to open or close solenoid valves and collecting and transmitting local sensor readings to the software. A field experiment was designed to test and validate the automatic programmer over a corn crop during two irrigation seasons (2009 and 2010). A randomized experimental design with four replicates was used to analyze three treatments: T0) a manual programmer acting as an advanced farmer; T1) automatic scheduling controlled by the estimated water content in the soil and simulated irrigation performance; and T2) advanced automatic scheduling controlled by crop and irrigation simulations. Results/Conclusions: Experimental results in 2009 and 2010 indicated that T0 was the treatment receiving most water, followed by T1 and T2. Yield parameters did not show significant differences between treatments. Automatic irrigation scheduling resulted in similar maize yield to manual irrigation. Differences were relevant in applied water (9% between T0 and T1, and 15% between T0 and T2). ; This research was funded by the MCINN of the Government of Spain through grants AGL2007-66716-C03-01/02 and AGL2010-21681-C03-01. ; Peer reviewed

33 Pags., 10 Figs. The definitive version is available at: http://www.springerlink.com/content/0342-7188/ ; A topographic three dimensional scanner is similar to a radiometric total station, but it does not require a reflecting prism and the optical measurement device is motorized and automated. With this device, very large survey data sets can be collected with moderate effort. In this paper, the application of a 3D scanner to surface and sprinkler irrigation research is presented and discussed. In surface irrigation, the scanner was successfully applied to: 1) the survey of soil surface elevation, including furrowed areas; 2) the determination of flow cross sections; 3) surveying the location of the advancing front; and 4) measuring water surface elevation. The device showed some limitations in the measurement range, which was limited to about 35 m for water surface elevation and 50 m for the detail survey of furrowed areas. In sprinkler irrigation, the scanner was applied to the survey of the sprinkler jet and the irrigation drops during their trajectory. The scanner seemed to fail to survey fine drops, since falling drops were rarely scanned in the vicinity of the sprinkler. Despite the reported limitations, the 3D scanner seems to be destined to occupy a relevant place in the irrigation research laboratory. ; This research was funded by the Plan Nacional de I+D+i of the Government of Spain, through grant AGL2007-66716-C03. We appreciate the cooperation of the surveying company "Scanner Patrimonio e Industria". ; Peer reviewed

8 Pag., 4 Fig. Trabajo presentado en: 1st International Conference Drought Management: Scientific and Technological Innovations, 2008/06/12-14, Zaragoza (Spain). ; [EN] In the last decade irrigation districts in Spain have started to use database software applications to improve their management operations. Such applications often put more emphasis on administrative issues than on water management issues. An irrigation district management software called Ador is presented in this paper. This database software application has been designed to promote water traceability and water allocation under conditions of scarcity. Ador can be used in irrigation districts independently of the type of irrigation system (surface, sprinkler or trickle) and the type of irrigation distribution network (open channel or pressurised). It can even be used in irrigation districts combining different types of irrigation systems and different types of irrigation distribution networks. The goals are to manage detailed information about district water management and to promote better on-farm irrigation practices. Ador is used primarily in the Aragon region of Spain. Some 70 irrigation districts, adding up to about 175,000 ha of irrigated land use Ador daily to manage water. The software has specific utilities for water allocation under drought conditions, which are applied by district managers to overcome difficult situations. ; [FR] Pendant la dernière décennie les associations des irrigants de l'Espagne ont commencé à utiliser des logiciels spécialisés pour leurs opérations de gestion. Ces logiciels sont souvent davantage focalisés sur la gestion administrative que sur la gestion de l'eau. Un logiciel de gestion de l'eau appelé Ador est présenté dans ce document. Ce logiciel a été conçu pour améliorer la traçabilité et l'allocation de l'eau en conditions de sécheresse. Ador peut être utilisé dans les associations d'irrigants avec différents systèmes d'irrigation (gravitaire, aspersion, goutte à goutte) et avec différents systèmes de distribution de l'eau (canaux et pressurisé). On peut même gérer des associations qui combinent différents types de systèmes d'irrigation et de distribution. Les objectifs de Ador sont enregistrer information détaillée sur la gestion locale de l'eau et promouvoir l'amélioration de l'efficience de l'irrigation. Ador est surtout utilisé dans la région de l'Aragon en Espagne. Environ 70 associations, avec 175 000 hectares irrigués utilisent Ador chaque jour pour gérer leurs ressources en eau. Le logiciel possède des outils spécifiques pour l'allocation de l'eau en conditions de sécheresse. Ces outils sont utilisés par les dirigeants de l'association quand les conditions deviennent difficiles. ; This research has been funded by the National Plan for Research and Developrnent of the Governrnent of Spain and the FEDER II funds of the European Union, through grants 2FD97-0547- 002 and AGL2000-01 51 -P4-02. Additional funds were received frorn the 13P prograrn of the European Union and the patrons of the Oficina del Regante (SIRASA, a public cornpany of the Governrnent of Aragón and the FEOGA funds of the European Union). ; Peer reviewed

7 Pags.- 3 Figs. ; Despite current technological developments and intense capacity building, farmers continue to show wide differences in irrigation water use, even for a given location and crop. Sprinkler irrigation performance is affected by a number of meteors, particularly wind speed. The short-time variability of wind speed requires tactical adjustments of the irrigation schedule. Additionally, energy costs often require consideration of the time evolution of the tariff along the day and among contiguous days. Opportunities have arisen in the last decades which permit to address these challenges through irrigation controllers guided by irrigation and crop simulation models. Among these opportunities: remote control systems installed in collective pressurized irrigation networks; networks of agrometeorological weather stations; and specialized databases for the management of Water Users Associations. In this paper, an irrigation controller configuration based on the use of solid-set sprinkler irrigation and crop simulation models is presented. This controller can develop, update and execute irrigation schedules aiming at maximizing irrigation adequacy and water productivity. Research, development and innovation bottlenecks are assessed to establish agendas leading to the commercial deployment of advanced controllers for solid-set sprinkler irrigation. ; This research was funded by the Government of Spain through research grant AGL2010-21681-C03-01. The research contract of S. Lecina was funded by the National Institute for Agricultural and Food Research and Technology (INIA), Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness. ; Peer reviewed

31 Pag., 5 Tabl., 7 Fig. ; The effect of day time vs. night time sprinkler irrigation on irrigation performance and tomato crop yield is assessed in this paper for the conditions of Tunisia. Field experiments were performed at the experimental station of Cherfech under two rectangular sprinkler spacings: 24 × 18 m and 18 × 18 m, denoted as plots M1 and M2, respectively. Results of performance evaluations indicate a significant effect of climatic and operation conditions on irrigation uniformity and wind drift and evaporation losses (WDEL). Experimental data were used to calibrate and validate a ballistic solid-set sprinkler irrigation simulation model and a soil-water-yield crop model. Based on the analysis of the main meteorological parameters during the irrigation season, the validated models were used to simulate night time irrigation (characterised by moderate wind speed and evaporative demand). Simulation results indicate that night time irrigation would greatly improve performance in comparison to day time operation: WDEL decreased from 24 to 7%, while irrigation uniformity increased from 50 to 64% in M1 and from 71 to 80% in M2. Simulated results showed that night time irrigation decreased relative yield losses (from 26 to 16% in M1 and from 11 to 3% in M2), as well as improving the spatial variability of crop yield (simulated yield CV in M2 decreased from 17 to 6%). Adoption of night irrigation in the study area will finally depend on local socioeconomic and water management constraints. ; This research was partially funded by INRGREF (Tunisia), and by the Agencia Española de Cooperación y Desarrollo (AECID) of the Government of Spain, through grant A/7661/07. ; Peer reviewed

42 Pags.- 1 Tabl.- 12 Figs. The defintive publication is available at: http://link.springer.com/journal/271 ; The experimental data set used in the paper is OA available (http://hdl.handle.net/10261/127640) ; The characterization of drops resulting from impact sprinkler irrigation has been addressed by a number of techniques. In this article, a new technique based on low-speed photography (1/100 s) is presented and validated. The technique permits to directly measure drop diameter, velocity and angle. The photographic technique was applied to the characterization of drops resulting from an isolated sprinkler equipped with a 4.8 mm nozzle and operating at a pressure of 200 kPa. Sprinkler performance was characterized from photographs of 1,464 drops taken at distances ranging from 1.5 to 12.5 m. It was possible to analyze separately the drops emitted by the main jet and those emitted by the impact arm. The proposed technique does not require specific equipment, although it is labor intensive. ; This research was funded by the Plan Nacional de I+D+i of the Government of Spain, through grant AGL2007-66716-C03. Carlos Bautista received a scholarship from the Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional (AECI). ; Peer reviewed

The definitive version is available at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/03783774 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2005.01.015 ; Wind drift and evaporation losses (WDEL) represent a relevant water sink in sprinkler irrigation, particularly in areas with strong winds and high evaporative demand. The objectives of this paper include: 1) Characterize WDEL under day and night operation conditions for solid-set and moving lateral configurations; 2) Propose adequate predictive equations; and 3) Prospect the effect of sprinkler irrigation on the meteorological variables and on the estimates of reference evapotranspiration. A total of 89 catch can irrigation evaluations were performed in both irrigation systems and under day and night conditions. Different predictive equations of WDEL were proposed for combinations of the two irrigation systems and the two operation times. The equations were selected based on their capability to explain and predict WDEL. Most equations use wind speed alone as an independent variable, although some use relative humidity or combinations of both variables plus air temperature. In the semi-arid meteorological conditions of Zaragoza (Spain), the average WDEL for the solid-set were 15.4 % and 8.5 % during day and night irrigations, respectively. For the experimental moving lateral, losses amounted to 9.8 % during the day and 5.0 % during the night. The effect of sprinkler irrigation on the meteorological variables was moderate, with small increases in relative humidity (3.9 %) and decreases in air temperature (0.5 ºC) during the irrigation event and a few minutes afterwards. Consequently, reference evapotranspiration, estimated by the Penman-Monteith method, decreased during the irrigation event by 0.023 mm h-1 on the average. This decrease represents 2.1 % of WDEL, suggesting that the WDEL do not significantly contribute to satisfy crop water requirements, and therefore constitute a consumptive water loss. ; This research was funded by the CONSI+D of the Government of Aragón (Spain) through grant P028/2000 and by the Plan Nacional de I+D+I of the government of Spain through grant AGL2004-06675-C03-03/AGR. ; Peer reviewed

Pags.- 4 Tabls.- 9 Figs. Available online 11 June 2014. The definitive version is available at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/03783774 ; The simulation of center-pivot performance has been the subject of research efforts since the 1960s. Center-pivot models frequently use empirical equations relating pressure and sprinkler radial application pattern. Individual, stationary water application patterns are overlapped and the resulting water application is mapped in the field. Such models use constant tower angular velocity, neglecting the effect of tower alignment. In this work the discontinuous tower movement has been experimentally characterized and modelled, and a complete model has been developed by using a ballistic model of the center-pivot sprinklers considering nozzle diameter, operating pressure and wind speed. A detailed kinetic analysis of a four-tower commercial center-pivot was performed. Each tower was monitored using a high precision GPS, recording tower positions at high frequency. The experimental center-pivot was equipped with fixed spray plate sprinklers (FSPS). Five experimental center-pivot irrigation events were evaluated using catch-cans. The analysis of tower location data permitted to conclude that two key variables (linear speed and switching angle) showed normal distribution patterns. The center-pivot model was validated with catch-can data. Finally, the simulation tool was used to assess the effect of variable tower alignment quality, center-pivot travel speed and wind conditions on irrigation performance. Comparisons were performed in terms of radial, circular and total irrigation uniformity. Results indicate that the observed tower dynamics had no measurable effect on irrigation uniformity. Tower alignment quality started to be relevant when the switching angle lag was equal to or larger than 2°. In the conditions of this analysis, wind speed showed a clear effect on uniformity. As wind speed increased, uniformity first decreased and then increased. Further research is required to generalize these results to other center-pivot sizes and designs (sprinkler packages). ; This research was funded by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of the Government of Spain through grant AGL2010-21681-C03-01. ; Peer reviewed

13 Págs., 4 Figs., 5 Tabls. The definitive version is available at: http://link.springer.com/journal/271 ; The application of new technologies to the control and automation of irrigation processes is becoming very important, and the automatic generation and execution of irrigation schedules is receiving growing attention. In this paper, a prototype automatic irrigation controller for solid-set systems is presented. The device is composed by software and hardware developments. The software was named Ador-Control and it integrates five modules: the first four modules simulate drop trajectories, water distribution, crop growth and yield, and the last module ensures bidirectional communication between software and hardware. Decision variables based on soil, crop, and irrigation performance indexes were used to make real-time irrigation decisions. A randomized experimental design was designed to validate the automatic controller over a corn crop during two seasons. Three treatments were analyzed: T0) manual programmer or advanced farmer; T1) automatic scheduling controlled by indexes based on soil simulated water content and irrigation performance; and T2) advanced automatic scheduling controlled by simulated thresholds of crop and irrigation indexes. Experimental results in 2009 and 2010 indicated that automatic irrigation treatments resulted in similar maize yield but using less water than manual irrigation (10 % between T0 and T1, and 18 % between T0 and T2). © 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg. ; This research was funded by the MCINN of the Government of Spain through grants AGL2007-66716-C03-01/02 and AGL2010-21681-C03-01 ; Peer reviewed

37 Pags.- 2 Tabls.- 10 Figs. The definitive version is available at: http://elibrary.asabe.org ; The experimental data used in the paper are OA available (http://hdl.handle.net/10261/127635) ; A variety of techniques have been proposed for sprinkler drop characterization. Two of them, the disdrometer method (D) and the low-speed photographic method (P), have recently been applied in the literature. A statistical method for the improvement of disdrometer measurements (DM) has been proposed to improve D measurements. The aims of this study were: (1) to compare the disdrometer and photographic methods under indoor conditions, (2) to produce a drop characterization data set, (3) to assess the effect of the statistical treatment of disdrometer data, and (4) to gain insight into the relationship between drop variables. The drops resulting from an impact sprinkler operating at 200, 300, and 400 kPa were characterized at distances of 3, 6, 9, and 12 m from the sprinkler. In each method, diameters responded to operating pressure and distance from the sprinkler according to the expected trends. The difference in volumetric diameter estimation between methods P and D amounted to -4% of the average P volumetric diameter. The application of DM to this data set increased the difference in volumetric diameter with method P to 15%. Drop velocity and angle could be measured with method P and showed clear relationships with drop diameter. Finally, regression equations are presented relating the most relevant experimental variables. The disdrometer resulted in fast measurements of drop diameter, while the photographic method provided additional variables but required intense work in the laboratory and particularly in the office. ; This research was funded by the Plan Nacional de I+D+i of the Government of Spain (Grant No. AGL2007‐66716‐ C03). Carlos Bautista‐Capetillo received a scholarship from the Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional para el Desarrollo (AECID). ; Peer Reviewed