Indian Journal of Science and Technology

Abstract

In this study, an evaluation was made of water delivery and irrigation performances in the Menemen Left Bank irrigation district at field level on the basis of farmers’ irrigations. Water delivery performance was determined by the indicators of adequacy, efficiency, dependability and equity, and irrigation performance was determined according to the indicators of water application, water storage, uniformity coefficient, and distribution uniformity. These indicators were calculated from the amounts of water which was actually applied and which should have been applied and from soil moisture values for the irrigation seasons of 2005 and 2006. Water delivery performance was found to be fair in the first year and good in the second year with regard to adequacy, good in the first year and fair in the second year for efficiency, fair in the first year and good in the second year for dependability, and poor in the first year and fair in the second year for equity. Two-year averages varied between 50 and 80% for water application efficiency, 54 and 97% for water storage efficiency, 73 and 88% for uniformity coefficient, and 68 and 82% for distribution uniformity. These results showed that irrigation efficiency and uniformity are generally at attainable levels for surface irrigation.
Keywords: Water delivery performance, Irrigation performance, Surface irrigation, Turkey.