Premium
Hydraulic sensitivity indicators for canal operation assessment
Author(s) -
Kouchakzadeh Salah,
Montazar Aliasghar
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
irrigation and drainage
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.421
H-Index - 38
eISSN - 1531-0361
pISSN - 1531-0353
DOI - 10.1002/ird.196
Subject(s) - sensitivity (control systems) , irrigation , flexibility (engineering) , perturbation (astronomy) , computer science , irrigation district , channel (broadcasting) , environmental science , control theory (sociology) , engineering , mathematics , telecommunications , statistics , electronic engineering , physics , ecology , control (management) , quantum mechanics , artificial intelligence , biology
An open channel irrigation system is a physical infrastructure composed of canal reaches and numerous structures such as offtakes and cross‐regulators, which conveys, regulates and distributes water for irrigation purposes. Each structure is meant to transform an input variable into an output one, and the flexibility of the output with respect to input variations can be expressed by a structure sensitivity indicator. The sensitivity analysis approach, applied to irrigation systems, might be considered an intermediary approach between steady and unsteady flow conditions for describing the flow behavior of irrigation canals. In this paper a preliminary analytical framework is developed to address the sensitivity of irrigation distribution systems. The development of hydraulic sensitivity indicators at local and reach levels is presented first. Then, by incorporating the time parameter in the analysis, a method for estimating a reach–time response to a perturbation is proposed. Also, a case study to evaluate the applicability of sensitivity indicators in assessing flow behavior in an irrigation canal was carried out. The results indicate that the proposed approach is capable of predicting the time required for damping a perturbation with a specified condition and provides the users with sufficient information to improve the management of water distribution in an irrigation network. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.