1.
Sugarcane
–
It has stout, jointed, fibrous stalks that are rich in the sugar sucrose, which accumulates in the stalk internodes. The plant is two to six meters tall, all sugar cane species interbreed and the major commercial cultivars are complex hybrids. Sugarcane belongs to the grass family Poaceae, an important seed plant family that includes maize, wheat, rice, and sorghum. Sucrose, extracted and purified in specialized factories, is used as raw material in the food industry or is fermented to produce ethanol. Ethanol is produced on a large scale by the Brazilian sugarcane industry, sugarcane is the worlds largest crop by production quantity. In 2012, The Food and Agriculture Organization estimates it was cultivated on about 26×106 hectares, in more than 90 countries, Brazil was the largest producer of sugar cane in the world. The next five major producers, in decreasing amounts of production, were India, China, Thailand, Pakistan, the world demand for sugar is the primary driver of sugarcane agriculture. Cane accounts for 80% of sugar produced, most of the rest is made from sugar beets, sugarcane predominantly grows in the tropical and subtropical regions. Other than sugar, products derived from sugarcane include falernum, molasses, rum, cachaça, bagasse, in some regions, people use sugarcane reeds to make pens, mats, screens, and thatch. The young, unexpanded inflorescence of tebu telor is eaten raw, steamed, or toasted, the Persians, followed by the Greeks, discovered the famous reeds that produce honey without bees in India between the 6th and 4th centuries BC. They adopted and then spread sugarcane agriculture, merchants began to trade in sugar from India, which was considered a luxury and an expensive spice. Sugarcane is a tropical, perennial grass that forms lateral shoots at the base to produce multiple stems, the stems grow into cane stalk, which when mature constitutes around 75% of the entire plant. A mature stalk is composed of 11–16% fiber, 12–16% soluble sugars, 2–3% nonsugars. A sugarcane crop is sensitive to the climate, soil type, irrigation, fertilizers, insects, disease control, varieties, the average yield of cane stalk is 60–70 tonnes per hectare per year. However, this figure can vary between 30 and 180 tonnes per hectare depending on knowledge and crop management approach used in sugarcane cultivation, sugarcane is a cash crop, but it is also used as livestock fodder. Sugarcane is indigenous to tropical South and Southeast Asia, different species likely originated in different locations, with Saccharum barberi originating in India and S. edule and S. officinarum in New Guinea. It is theorized that sugarcane was first domesticated as a crop in New Guinea around 6000 BC, New Guinean farmers and other early cultivators of sugarcane chewed the plant for its sweet juice. The exact date of the first cane sugar production is unclear, the earliest evidence of sugar production comes from ancient Sanskrit and Pali texts
2.
Australia
–
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands. It is the worlds sixth-largest country by total area, the neighbouring countries are Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and East Timor to the north, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu to the north-east, and New Zealand to the south-east. Australias capital is Canberra, and its largest urban area is Sydney, for about 50,000 years before the first British settlement in the late 18th century, Australia was inhabited by indigenous Australians, who spoke languages classifiable into roughly 250 groups. The population grew steadily in subsequent decades, and by the 1850s most of the continent had been explored, on 1 January 1901, the six colonies federated, forming the Commonwealth of Australia. Australia has since maintained a liberal democratic political system that functions as a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy comprising six states. The population of 24 million is highly urbanised and heavily concentrated on the eastern seaboard, Australia has the worlds 13th-largest economy and ninth-highest per capita income. With the second-highest human development index globally, the country highly in quality of life, health, education, economic freedom. The name Australia is derived from the Latin Terra Australis a name used for putative lands in the southern hemisphere since ancient times, the Dutch adjectival form Australische was used in a Dutch book in Batavia in 1638, to refer to the newly discovered lands to the south. On 12 December 1817, Macquarie recommended to the Colonial Office that it be formally adopted, in 1824, the Admiralty agreed that the continent should be known officially as Australia. The first official published use of the term Australia came with the 1830 publication of The Australia Directory and these first inhabitants may have been ancestors of modern Indigenous Australians. The Torres Strait Islanders, ethnically Melanesian, were originally horticulturists, the northern coasts and waters of Australia were visited sporadically by fishermen from Maritime Southeast Asia. The first recorded European sighting of the Australian mainland, and the first recorded European landfall on the Australian continent, are attributed to the Dutch. The first ship and crew to chart the Australian coast and meet with Aboriginal people was the Duyfken captained by Dutch navigator, Willem Janszoon. He sighted the coast of Cape York Peninsula in early 1606, the Dutch charted the whole of the western and northern coastlines and named the island continent New Holland during the 17th century, but made no attempt at settlement. William Dampier, an English explorer and privateer, landed on the north-west coast of New Holland in 1688, in 1770, James Cook sailed along and mapped the east coast, which he named New South Wales and claimed for Great Britain. The first settlement led to the foundation of Sydney, and the exploration, a British settlement was established in Van Diemens Land, now known as Tasmania, in 1803, and it became a separate colony in 1825. The United Kingdom formally claimed the part of Western Australia in 1828. Separate colonies were carved from parts of New South Wales, South Australia in 1836, Victoria in 1851, the Northern Territory was founded in 1911 when it was excised from South Australia
3.
Irrigation
–
Irrigation is the method in which a controlled amount of water is supplied to plants at regular intervals for agriculture. It is used to assist in the growing of crops, maintenance of landscapes. Additionally, irrigation also has a few uses in crop production. In contrast, agriculture that only on direct rainfall is referred to as rain-fed or dry land farming. Irrigation systems are used for dust suppression, disposal of sewage. Irrigation is often studied together with drainage, which is the natural or artificial removal of surface and sub-surface water from a given area, Irrigation has been a central feature of agriculture for over 5,000 years and is the product of many cultures. Historically, it was the basis for economies and societies across the globe, archaeological investigation has found evidence of irrigation where the natural rainfall was insufficient to support crops for rainfed agriculture. Ancient Egyptians practiced Basin irrigation using the flooding of the Nile to inundate land plots which had surrounded by dykes. The flood water was held until the sediment had settled before the surplus was returned to the watercourse. The Ancient Nubians developed a form of irrigation by using a device called a sakia. Irrigation began in Nubia some time between the third and second millennium BCE and it largely depended upon the flood waters that would flow through the Nile River and other rivers in what is now the Sudan. In sub-Saharan Africa irrigation reached the Niger River region cultures and civilizations by the first or second millennium BCE and was based on wet season flooding, terrace irrigation is evidenced in pre-Columbian America, early Syria, India, and China. These canals are the earliest record of irrigation in the New World, traces of a canal possibly dating from the 5th millennium BCE were found under the 4th millennium canal. Large scale agriculture was practiced and a network of canals was used for the purpose of irrigation. Ancient Persia as far back as the 6th millennium BCE, where barley was grown in areas where the rainfall was insufficient to support such a crop. The Qanats, developed in ancient Persia in about 800 BCE, are among the oldest known irrigation methods still in use today and they are now found in Asia, the Middle East and North Africa. The system comprises a network of wells and gently sloping tunnels driven into the sides of cliffs. The noria, a wheel with clay pots around the rim powered by the flow of the stream, was first brought into use at about this time
4.
Rice
–
Rice is the seed of the grass species Oryza sativa or Oryza glaberrima. As a cereal grain, it is the most widely consumed staple food for a part of the worlds human population. It is the agricultural commodity with the third-highest worldwide production, after sugarcane and maize, wild rice, from which the crop was developed, may have its native range in Australia. Chinese legends attribute the domestication of rice to Shennong, the emperor of China. Genetic evidence has shown that rice originates from a single domestication 8, previously, archaeological evidence had suggested that rice was domesticated in the Yangtze River valley region in China. From East Asia, rice was spread to Southeast and South Asia, Rice was introduced to Europe through Western Asia, and to the Americas through European colonization. There are many varieties of rice and culinary preferences tend to vary regionally, in some areas such as the Far East or Spain, there is a preference for softer and stickier varieties. Rice, a monocot, is grown as an annual plant, although in tropical areas it can survive as a perennial. The rice plant can grow to 1–1.8 m tall, occasionally more depending on the variety and it has long, slender leaves 50–100 cm long and 2–2.5 cm broad. The small wind-pollinated flowers are produced in a branched arching to pendulous inflorescence 30–50 cm long, the edible seed is a grain 5–12 mm long and 2–3 mm thick. Rice cultivation is well-suited to countries and regions with low costs and high rainfall, as it is labor-intensive to cultivate. However, rice can be grown practically anywhere, even on a hill or mountain area with the use of water-controlling terrace systems. Although its parent species are native to Asia and certain parts of Africa, centuries of trade, the traditional method for cultivating rice is flooding the fields while, or after, setting the young seedlings. The name wild rice is used for species of the genera Zizania and Porteresia. The Greek word is the source of all European words, the origin of the Greek word is unclear. It is sometimes held to be from the Tamil word அரிசி, however, Krishnamurti disagrees with the notion that Old Tamil arici is the source of the Greek term, and proposes that it was borrowed from descendants of Proto-Dravidian *wariñci instead. The varieties of rice are typically classified as long-, medium-, the grains of long-grain rice tend to remain intact after cooking, medium-grain rice becomes more sticky. Medium-grain rice is used for dishes, for risotto in Italy
5.
Wheat
–
Wheat is a cereal grain, originally from the Levant region but now cultivated worldwide. In 2016, world production of wheat was 749 million tonnes, making it the second most-produced cereal after maize, since 1960, world production of wheat and other grain crops has tripled and is expected to grow further through the middle of the 21st Century. This grain is grown on land area than any other commercial food. World trade in wheat is greater than for all other crops combined, globally, wheat is the leading source of vegetal protein in human food, having a protein content of about 13%, which is relatively high compared to other major cereals and staple foods. The archaeological record suggests that wheat was first cultivated in the regions of the Fertile Crescent around 9600 BCE. In a small part of the population, gluten – the major part of wheat protein – can trigger coeliac disease, non-coeliac gluten sensitivity, gluten ataxia. Cultivation and repeated harvesting and sowing of the grains of wild grasses led to the creation of domestic strains, in domesticated wheat, grains are larger, and the seeds remain attached to the ear by a toughened rachis during harvesting. In wild strains, a more fragile rachis allows the ear to easily shatter, as the traits that improve wheat as a food source also involve the loss of the plants natural seed dispersal mechanisms, highly domesticated strains of wheat cannot survive in the wild. Cultivation of wheat began to spread beyond the Fertile Crescent after about 8000 BCE, jared Diamond traces the spread of cultivated emmer wheat starting in the Fertile Crescent sometime before 8800 BCE. Archaeological analysis of wild emmer indicates that it was first cultivated in the southern Levant with finds dating back as far as 9600 BCE, Genetic analysis of wild einkorn wheat suggests that it was first grown in the Karacadag Mountains in southeastern Turkey. Dated archeological remains of wheat in settlement sites near this region, including those at Abu Hureyra in Syria. With the anomalous exception of two grains from Iraq ed-Dubb, the earliest carbon-14 date for einkorn wheat remains at Abu Hureyra is 7800 to 7500 years BCE. Remains of harvested emmer from several sites near the Karacadag Range have been dated to between 8600 and 8400 BCE, that is, in the Neolithic period and these remains were dated by Willem van Zeist and his assistant Johanna Bakker-Heeres to 8800 BCE. They also concluded that the settlers of Tell Aswad did not develop this form of emmer themselves, the cultivation of emmer reached Greece, Cyprus and India by 6500 BCE, Egypt shortly after 6000 BCE, and Germany and Spain by 5000 BCE. The early Egyptians were developers of bread and the use of the oven, by 3000 BCE, wheat had reached the British Isles and Scandinavia. A millennium later it reached China, the oldest evidence for hexaploid wheat has been confirmed through DNA analysis of wheat seeds, dating to around 6400-6200 BCE, recovered from Çatalhöyük. The first identifiable bread wheat with sufficient gluten for yeasted breads has been identified using DNA analysis in samples from a dating to approximately 1350 BCE at Assiros in Macedonia. From Asia, wheat continued to spread throughout Europe, in the British Isles, wheat straw was used for roofing in the Bronze Age, and was in common use until the late 19th century
6.
Cotton
–
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus Gossypium in the family of Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, under natural conditions, the cotton bolls will tend to increase the dispersal of the seeds. The plant is a native to tropical and subtropical regions around the world, including the Americas, Africa. The greatest diversity of wild species is found in Mexico, followed by Australia. Cotton was independently domesticated in the Old and New Worlds, the fiber is most often spun into yarn or thread and used to make a soft, breathable textile. Current estimates for world production are about 25 million tonnes or 110 million bales annually, China is the worlds largest producer of cotton, but most of this is used domestically. The United States has been the largest exporter for many years, in the United States, cotton is usually measured in bales, which measure approximately 0.48 cubic meters and weigh 226.8 kilograms. Cotton cultivation in the region is dated to the Indus Valley Civilization, the Indus cotton industry was well-developed and some methods used in cotton spinning and fabrication continued to be used until the industrialization of India. Between 2000 and 1000 BC cotton became widespread across much of India, for example, it has been found at the site of Hallus in Karnataka dating from around 1000 BC. Cotton fabrics discovered in a cave near Tehuacán, Mexico have been dated to around 5800 BC, the domestication of Gossypium hirsutum in Mexico is dated between 3400 and 2300 BC. Cotton was grown upriver, made into nets, and traded with fishing villages along the coast for supplies of fish. The Spanish who came to Mexico and Peru in the early 16th century found the people growing cotton and this may be a reference to tree cotton, Gossypium arboreum, which is a native of the Indian subcontinent. According to the Columbia Encyclopedia, Cotton has been spun, woven and it clothed the people of ancient India, Egypt, and China. Hundreds of years before the Christian era, cotton textiles were woven in India with matchless skill, in Iran, the history of cotton dates back to the Achaemenid era, however, there are few sources about the planting of cotton in pre-Islamic Iran. The planting of cotton was common in Merv, Ray and Pars of Iran, in Persian poets poems, especially Ferdowsis Shahname, there are references to cotton. Marco Polo refers to the products of Persia, including cotton. John Chardin, a French traveler of the 17th century who visited the Safavid Persia, during the Han dynasty, cotton was grown by Chinese peoples in the southern Chinese province of Yunnan. Mohamed Ali Pasha accepted the proposition and granted himself the monopoly on the sale and export of cotton in Egypt, and later dictated cotton should be grown in preference to other crops
7.
Maize
–
Maize, also known as corn, is a large grain plant first domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mexico about 10,000 years ago. The six major types of corn are dent corn, flint corn, pod corn, popcorn, flour corn, the leafy stalk of the plant produces separate pollen and ovuliferous inflorescences or ears, which are fruits, yielding kernels or seeds. Maize kernels are used in cooking as a starch. Most historians believe maize was domesticated in the Tehuacan Valley of Mexico, recent research modified this view somewhat, scholars now indicate the adjacent Balsas River Valley of south-central Mexico as the center of domestication. The Olmec and Mayans cultivated maize in numerous varieties throughout Mesoamerica, cooked and its believed that beginning about 2500 BC, the crop spread through much of the Americas. The region developed a network based on surplus and varieties of maize crops. Nevertheless, recent data indicates that the spread of maize took place even earlier, according to Piperno, A large corpus of data indicates that it was dispersed into lower Central America by 7600 BP and had moved into the inter-Andean valleys of Colombia between 7000 and 6000 BP. Since then, even earlier dates have been published, the study also demonstrated that the oldest surviving maize types are those of the Mexican highlands. Later, maize spread from this region over the Americas along two major paths and this is consistent with a model based on the archaeological record suggesting that maize diversified in the highlands of Mexico before spreading to the lowlands. Before they were domesticated, maize plants only grew small,25 millimetres long corn cobs, Maize is the most widely grown grain crop throughout the Americas, with 361 million metric tons grown in the United States in 2014. Approximately 40% of the crop—130 million tons—is used for corn ethanol, genetically modified maize made up 85% of the maize planted in the United States in 2009. After the arrival of Europeans in 1492, Spanish settlers consumed maize and explorers and traders carried it back to Europe, Spanish settlers far preferred wheat bread to maize, cassava, or potatoes. Maize flour could not be substituted for wheat for bread, since in Christian belief only wheat could undergo transubstantiation. At another level, Spaniards worried that by eating indigenous foods, which they did not consider nutritious, that not only would they weaken, despite these worries, Spaniards did consume maize and archeological evidence from Florida sites indicate they cultivated it as well. Maize spread to the rest of the world because of its ability to grow in diverse climates and it was cultivated in Spain just a few decades after Columbuss voyages and then spread to Italy, West Africa and elsewhere. The word maize derives from the Spanish form of the indigenous Taíno word for the plant and it is known by other names around the world. The word corn outside North America, Australia, and New Zealand refers to any cereal crop, in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, corn primarily means maize, this usage started as a shortening of Indian corn. Indian corn primarily means maize, but can more specifically to multicolored flint corn used for decoration
8.
Citrus
–
Citrus is a genus of flowering trees and shrubs in the rue family, Rutaceae. Plants in the genus produce citrus fruits, including important crops like oranges, lemons, grapefruit, pomelo, the most recent research indicates an origin in Australia, New Caledonia and New Guinea. Citrus fruit has been cultivated in an area since ancient times. At various times, citrus plants were thought to be native to Asia, Europe, but the European oranges were originally brought from India at around the time of Alexander the Great, and the native oranges of Florida actually originated with the Spanish Conquistadors. The lemon reached Europe during the time of classical Rome, the generic name originated from Latin, where it referred to either the plant now known as Citron or a conifer tree. It is somehow related to the ancient Greek word for cedar and this may be due to perceived similarities in the smell of citrus leaves and fruit with that of cedar. Collectively, Citrus fruits and plants are known by the Romance loanword agrumes. The large citrus fruit of today evolved originally from small, edible berries over millions of years, Citrus plants diverged from a common ancestor about 15 million years ago, which was about when it diverged from the closely related severinia, for example the Chinese box orange. These estimates are made using genetic mapping of plant chloroplasts, the three original species in the citrus genus that have been hybridized into most modern commercial citrus fruit are the mandarin orange, pummelo, and citron. Within the last few years, all common citrus fruits were created by crossing those original species. Something similar has occurred with the array of chili peppers originating in the hybridization of a few initial species. Natural and cultivated citrus hybrids include commercially important fruit such as oranges, grapefruit, lemons, limes, apart from these four core citrus species, there are Australian limes and the recently discovered Mangshanyegan. Kumquats and Clymenia sp. are now considered to belong within the citrus genus. Trifoliate orange, which is used as commercial rootstock, is an outgroup. Phylogenetic analysis suggests the species of Oxanthera from New Caledonia should be transferred to the genus Citrus and these plants are large shrubs or small to moderate-sized trees, reaching 5–15 m tall, with spiny shoots and alternately arranged evergreen leaves with an entire margin. The flowers are solitary or in corymbs, each flower 2–4 cm diameter, with five white petals and numerous stamens. The fruit is a hesperidium, a berry, globose to elongated, 4–30 cm long and 4–20 cm diameter. The outermost layer of the pericarp is a called the flavedo
9.
Drupe
–
In botany, a drupe is an indehiscent fruit in which an outer fleshy part surrounds a shell of hardened endocarp with a seed inside. These fruits usually develop from a carpel, and mostly from flowers with superior ovaries. Other fleshy fruits may have an enclosure that comes from the seed coat surrounding the seed. The term drupaceous is applied to a fruit which has the structure and texture of a drupe, the boundary between a drupe and a berry is not always clear. Thus some sources describe the fruit of species of the genus Persea, one definition of berry requires the endocarp to be less than 2 mm thick, other fruits with a stony endocarp being drupes. In marginal cases, terms such as drupaceous or drupe-like may be used, the term stone fruit can be a synonym for drupe or, more typically, it can mean just the fruit of the genus Prunus. Freestone refers to a drupe having a stone which can be removed from the flesh with ease, the flesh is not attached to the stone and does not need to be cut to free the stone. Freestone varieties of fruits are preferred for uses that require removal of the stone. Freestone plums are preferred for making homegrown prunes, and freestone sour cherries are preferred for making pies, clingstone refers to a drupe having a stone which cannot easily be removed from the flesh. The flesh is attached strongly to the stone and must be cut to free the stone, clingstone varieties of fruits in the genus Prunus are preferred as table fruit and for jams, because the flesh of clingstone fruits tends to be more tender and juicy throughout. Tryma is a term for such nut-like drupes that are difficult to categorize. Hickory nuts and walnuts in the Juglandaceae family grow within a husk, these fruits are technically drupes or drupaceous nuts. Many drupes, with their sweet, fleshy outer layer, attract the attention of animals as a food, and the plant population benefits from the resulting dispersal of its seeds. The endocarp is sometimes dropped after the part is eaten, but is often swallowed, passing through the digestive tract. This passage through the tract can reduce the thickness of the endocarp. The process is known as scarification, typical drupes include apricots, olives, peaches, plums, cherries, mangoes and amlas. The coconut is also a drupe, but the mesocarp is fibrous or dry, so this type of fruit is classified as a simple dry, unlike other drupes, the coconut seed is unlikely to be dispersed by being swallowed by fauna, due to its large size. It can, however, float extremely long distances across oceans, bramble fruits are aggregates of drupelets
10.
Tomato
–
The tomato is the edible fruit of Solanum lycopersicum, commonly known as a tomato plant, which belongs to the nightshade family, Solanaceae. The species originated in Central and South America, the Nahuatl word tomatl gave rise to the Spanish word tomate, from which the English word tomato originates. Numerous varieties of tomato are widely grown in temperate climates across the world, with greenhouses allowing its production throughout the year, the plants typically grow to 1–3 meters in height and have a weak stem that often sprawls over the ground and vines over other plants. It is a perennial in its habitat, and grown as an annual in temperate climates. An average common tomato weighs approximately 100 grams and its use as a food originated in Mexico, and spread throughout the world following the Spanish colonization of the Americas. Tomato is consumed in diverse ways, including raw, as an ingredient in dishes, sauces, salads. While tomatoes are botanically fruits, they are considered culinary vegetables. The word tomato comes from the Spanish tomate, which in turn comes from the Nahuatl word tomatl and it first appeared in print in 1595. The native Mexican tomatillo is tomate, meaning fat water or fat thing), when Aztecs started to cultivate the Andean fruit, bigger and red, they called the new species xitomatl. It first appeared in print in 1595, the scientific species epithet lycopersicum means wolf peach, and comes from German werewolf myths. The Italian word, pomodoro was borrowed into Polish, and via Russian, the usual pronunciations of tomato are /təˈmeɪtoʊ/ and /təˈmɑːtoʊ/. The words dual pronunciations were immortalized in Ira and George Gershwins 1937 song Lets Call the Whole Thing Off and have become a symbol for nitpicking pronunciation disputes. In this capacity, it has become an American and British slang term. Or Its all the same to me, botanically, a tomato is a fruit, a berry, consisting of the ovary, together with its seeds, of a flowering plant. However, the tomato has a lower sugar content than other edible fruits. Typically served as part of a salad or main course of a meal, rather than at dessert, it is, in the US, considered a culinary vegetable. One exception is that tomatoes are treated as a fruit in home canning practices, they are acidic enough to process in a water bath rather than a pressure cooker as vegetables require. Tomatoes are not the food source with this ambiguity, bell peppers, cucumbers, green beans, eggplants, avocados
11.
Environmental impact of irrigation
–
The impacts stem from the altered hydrological conditions caused by the installation and operation of the irrigation scheme. An irrigation scheme draws water from groundwater, rivers, lakes or overland flow, indirect effects are those that have consequences that take longer to develop and may also be longer-lasting. The ecological and socioeconomic consequences take longer to happen but can be more far-reaching, some irrigation schemes use water wells for irrigation. As a result, the water level decreases. This may cause water mining, land/soil subsidence, and, along the coast, irrigated land area worldwide occupies about 16% of the total agricultural area and the crop yield of irrigated land is roughly 40% of the total yield. In other words, irrigated land produces 2.5 times more product than non-irrigated land and this article will discuss some of the environmental and socioeconomic impacts of irrigation. Water withdrawal poses a threat to the Ganges. In India, barrages control all of the tributaries to the Ganges, the Indus River in Pakistan faces scarcity due to over-extraction of water for agriculture. The Indus is inhabited by 25 amphibian species and 147 fish species of which 22 are found nowhere else in the world and it harbors the endangered Indus River dolphin, one of the world’s rarest mammals. Current water withdrawal from the river Nile for irrigation is so high that, despite its size, the Aral Sea has suffered an environmental catastrophe due to the interception of river water for irrigation purposes. Increased groundwater recharge stems from the unavoidable deep percolation losses occurring in the irrigation scheme, the lower the irrigation efficiency, the higher the losses. The increased level of the table can lead to reduced agricultural production. Health costs, appraisals of health impacts and mitigation measures are part of irrigation projects. High nitrate levels in drinking water can be harmful to humans, particularly infants under 6 months and it may lead to reduced public health. Polluted river water entering the sea may adversely affect the ecology along the sea shore, the natural build up of sedimentation can reduce downstream river flows due to the installation of irrigation systems. Sedimentation is an part of the ecosystem that requires the natural flux of the river flow. This natural cycle of sediment dispersion replenishes the nutrients in the soil, the benefits of heavy deposits of sedimentation can be seen in large rivers like the Nile River. The sediment from the delta has built up to form a giant aquifer during flood season, the wetlands that are created and sustained due to built up sediment at the basin of the river is a habitat for numerous species of birds
12.
Waterlogging (agriculture)
–
Waterlogging refers to the saturation of soil with water. Soil may be regarded as waterlogged when it is saturated with water much of the time such that its air phase is restricted. In extreme cases of prolonged waterlogging, anaerobiosis occurs, the roots of mesophytes suffer, in agriculture, various crops need air to a greater or lesser depth in the soil. Waterlogging of the soil stops air getting in, how near the water table must be to the surface for the ground to be classed as waterlogged, varies with the purpose in view. A crops demand for freedom from waterlogging may vary between seasons of the year, as with the growing of rice, in irrigated agricultural land, waterlogging is often accompanied by soil salinity as waterlogged soils prevent leaching of the salts imported by the irrigation water. From a gardening point of view, waterlogging is the process whereby the soil blocks off all water and is so hard it stops air getting in and it stops oxygen from getting in
13.
Drainage
–
Drainage is the natural or artificial removal of surface and sub-surface water from an area. The internal drainage of most agricultural soils is good enough to prevent severe waterlogging, all houses in the major cities of Harappa and Mohenjo-daro had access to water and drainage facilities. Waste water was directed to covered drains, which lined the major streets, the invention of hollow-pipe drainage is credited to Sir Hugh Dalrymple, who died in 1753. New drainage systems incorporate geotextile filters that retain and prevent fine grains of soil from passing into, geotextiles are synthetic textile fabrics specially manufactured for civil and environmental engineering applications. Geotextiles are designed to retain fine soil particles while allowing water to pass through, in a typical drainage system they would be laid along a trench which would then be filled with coarse granular material, gravel, sea shells, stone or rock. The geotextile is then folded over the top of the stone, groundwater seeps through the geotextile and flow within the stone to an outfell. In high groundwater conditions a perforated pipe is laid along the base of the drain to increases the volume of water transported in the drain. Alternatively, the prefabricated plastic drainage system made of HDPE called SmartDitch, often incorporating geotextile, over the past 30 years geotextile and PVC filters have become the most commonly used soil filter media. They are cheap to produce and easy to lay, with factory controlled properties that ensure long term filtration performance even in fine silty soil conditions, seattles Public Utilities created a pilot program called Street Edge Alternatives Project. The project focuses on designing a system to provide drainage that more closely mimics the natural landscape prior to development than traditional piped systems, the streets are characterized by ditches along the side of the roadway, with plantings designed throughout the area. An emphasis on non curbed sidewalks allows water to more freely into the areas of permeable surface on the side of the streets. Because of the plantings the run off water from the area does not all directly go into the ground. Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems are designed to encourage contractors to install drainage system that closely mimic the natural flow of water in nature. Since 2010 local and neighbourhood planning in the UK is required by law to factor SUDS into any development projects that they are responsible for, slot drainage has proved the most breakthrough product of the last twenty years as a drainage option. Both stainless steel and concrete channel slot drainage have become industry standards on construction projects, the civil engineer is responsible for drainage in construction projects. They set out from the all the roads, street gutters, drainage, culverts. During the construction process he/she will set out all the levels for each of the previously mentioned factors. Civil engineers and construction managers work alongside architects and supervisors, planners, quantity surveyors, typically, most jurisdictions have some body of drainage law to govern to what degree a landowner can alter the drainage from his parcel
14.
Tile drainage
–
In agriculture, tile drainage is a type of drainage system that removes excess water from soil below the surface. Whereas irrigation is the practice of adding additional water when the soil is too dry. While surface water can be drained via pumping and/or open ditches, tile drainage got its name from tiles made from fired clay, similar to terracotta pipes but not necessarily in a pipe shape. In the 19th century a C-channel tile atop a flat tile were often used, today, however, tile drainage can be any system operating on the same principle, often with plastic tubing called tile line. Precast concrete and ceramic are used as well. Too much subsurface water can be counterproductive to agriculture by preventing root development, too much water also can limit access to the land, particularly by farm machinery. In terms of access, most modern agriculture depends on the use of large machinery—tractors and implements—to prepare the seedbed, plant the crop, most crops require specific soil moisture conditions, and do not grow well in wet, mucky soil. Even in soil that isnt mucky the roots of most plants will not grow much deeper than the water table, early in the growing season when water is in ample supply, plants are small and dont require much water. During this time, the plants do not need to develop their roots to reach for the water, as the plants grow and use more water during the growing season water becomes more scarce. During this time, the table starts to fall. Plants suddenly need to start developing roots to reach to the water, during dry times, the water table can fall faster than the plants can develop roots to reach for the water. This can seriously stress the plants, by adding drain tile, the water table is effectively lowered, and plants can properly develop their roots. The lack of water saturation allows oxygen to exist in the soil around the roots, drain tile prevents the roots from being under the water table during wet periods that could cause excessive plant stress. By removing excessive water, crops use water they have more effectively, an increase in crop yield can be simply summarized by the following, Simply by forcing the plants to have more developed roots, the plants can more effectively absorb more nutrients and water. The same principle is employed by containers that hold house plants, they have holes in the bottom to allow oxygen to the roots. By placing drain tile under a field in a grid style layout, water flowing through tile lines is often ultimately deposited into surface water points—lakes, streams, and rivers—located at a lower elevation than the source. Water enters the tile line either via the gaps between sections, in the case of older tile designs, or through small perforations in modern plastic tile. The installation of the tiles or tile line can involve a trencher, a mole plough, soil type greatly affects the efficacy of tile systems, and dictates the extent to which the area must be tiled to ensure sufficient drainage
15.
Watertable control
–
Watertable control is the practice of controlling the height of the water table by drainage. Subsurface land drainage aims at controlling the water table of the groundwater in originally waterlogged land at an acceptable for the purpose for which the land is used. The depth of the table with drainage is greater than without. In addition, land drainage can help with soil salinity control, the soils hydraulic conductivity plays an important role in drainage design. Optimization of the depth of the table is related the benefits and costs of the drainage system. The shallower the permissible depth of the table, the lower the cost of the drainage system to be installed to achieve this depth. However, the lowering of the originally too shallow depth by land drainage entails side effects and these have also to be taken into account, including the costs of mitigation of negative side effects. The optimization of drainage design and the development of drainage criteria are discussed in the article on drainage research, Figure 4 shows an example of the effect of drain depth on soil salinity and various irrigation/drainage parameters as simulated by the SaltMod program. Historically, agricultural land drainage started with the digging of relatively shallow open ditches that received runoff from the land surface and outflow of groundwater. Hence the ditches had a surface as well as a drainage function. Since 1960, one started using long, flexible, corrugated plastic pipes that could be installed efficiently in one go by trenching machines. The pipes could be pre-wrapped with a material, like synthetic fibre and geotextile. Thus, land became a powerful industry. At the same time agriculture was steering towards maximum productivity, so that the installation of drainage systems came in full swing, as a result of large scale developments, many modern drainage projects were over-designed, while the negative environmental side effects were ignored. Nowadays, in countries, the hardliner trend is reversed. Further, checked or controlled drainage systems were introduced, as shown in Figure 5, the drain discharge is found from an agricultural water balance. The computations can be using computer models like EnDrain. Subsurface drainage of groundwater can also be accomplished by pumped wells, Drainage wells have been used extensively in the Salinity Control and Reclamation Program in the Indus valley of Pakistan
16.
Drainage system (agriculture)
–
An agricultural drainage system is a system by which water is drained on or in the soil to enhance agricultural production of crops. It may involve any combination of control, erosion control. While there are more than two types of drainage systems employed in agriculture, there are two types, surface drainage and sub-surface drainage. Figure 1 classifies the types of drainage systems. It shows the field and the main systems, in some instances one makes an additional distinction between collector and main drainage systems. Field drainage systems are differentiated in surface and subsurface drainage systems. Sometimes, a form of drainage is required whereby the drainage system is allowed to function only on certain occasions. If allowed to function continuously, excessive quantities of water would be lost, such a system is therefore called a checked, or controlled, drainage system. In agricultural literature, this is also called a relief drainage system. The regular surface drainage systems, which start functioning as soon as there is an excess of rainfall or irrigation applied, the bedded and graded systems may have ridges and furrows. The checked surface drainage systems consist of check gates placed in the surrounding flat basins. These fields are usually submerged and only need to be drained on certain occasions, checked surface drainage systems are also found in terraced lands used for rice. It is therefore difficult to develop sound agricultural criteria for the surface field drainage systems. Most of the criteria for these systems concern the efficiency of the techniques of land leveling and earthmoving. Similarly, agricultural criteria for checked surface drainage systems are not very well known, like the surface field drainage systems, the subsurface field drainage systems can also be differentiated in regular systems and checked systems. They can save much irrigation water, a checked drainage system also reduces the discharge through the main drainage system, thereby reducing construction costs. When the discharge takes place by pumping, the drainage can be checked simply by not operating the pumps or by reducing the pumping time. In northwestern India, this practice has increased the efficiency and reduced the quantity of irrigation water needed
17.
Groundwater recharge
–
Groundwater recharge or deep drainage or deep percolation is a hydrologic process where water moves downward from surface water to groundwater. Recharge is the method through which water enters an aquifer. This process usually occurs in the zone below plant roots and is often expressed as a flux to the water table surface. Recharge occurs both naturally and through anthropogenic processes, where rainwater and or reclaimed water is routed to the subsurface, groundwater is recharged naturally by rain and snow melt and to a smaller extent by surface water. Recharge may be impeded somewhat by human activities including paving, development and these activities can result in loss of topsoil resulting in reduced water infiltration, enhanced surface runoff and reduction in recharge. Use of groundwaters, especially for irrigation, may lower the water tables. Recharge can help move excess salts that accumulate in the zone to deeper soil layers. Tree roots increase water saturation into groundwater reducing water runoff, flooding temporarily increases river bed permeability by moving clay soils downstream, and this increases aquifer recharge. Artificial groundwater recharge is becoming important in India, where over-pumping of groundwater by farmers has led to underground resources becoming depleted. Another environmental issue is the disposal of waste through the water such as dairy farms, industrial. Wetlands help maintain the level of the table and exert control on the hydraulic head. This provides force for groundwater recharge and discharge to other waters as well, the extent of groundwater recharge by a wetland is dependent upon soil, vegetation, site, perimeter to volume ratio, and water table gradient. Groundwater recharge occurs through mineral soils found primarily around the edges of wetlands The soil under most wetlands is relatively impermeable, a high perimeter to volume ratio, such as in small wetlands, means that the surface area through which water can infiltrate into the groundwater is high. Groundwater recharge is typical in small wetlands such as prairie potholes, researchers have discovered groundwater recharge of up to 20% of wetland volume per season. If water falls uniformly over a field such that capacity of the soil is not exceeded. If instead water puddles in low-lying areas, the water volume concentrated over a smaller area may exceed field capacity resulting in water that percolates down to recharge groundwater. The larger the relative contributing runoff area is, the more focused infiltration is, the recurring process of water that falls relatively uniformly over an area, flowing to groundwater selectively under surface depressions is depression focused recharge. Water tables rise under such depressions, depression focused groundwater recharge can be very important in arid regions
18.
Salinity in Australia
–
Soil salinity and dryland salinity are two problems degrading the environment of Australia. Salinity is a concern in most states, but especially in the south-west of Western Australia, the Eastern Mallee and the Western Mallee of Western Australia are areas that are prone to salinity with little remedial action being undertaken to rectify the problem. Lands surrounding Lake Bryde-East Lake Bryde and Dumbleyung Lake have also been affected, in the Murray River valley irrigation has caused salinity problems. Land surrounding the town of Werrimull in the northwest of Victoria have been affected by salinity due to land clearing, the soil in Australia naturally contains salt, having accumulated over thousands of years. This salt may come from prevailing winds carrying ocean salt, the evaporation of inland seas, when this ground water comes closer to the surface, this salt is also brought up. As the water evaporates, it leaves behind all this concentrated salt. This can be caused by an imbalance in the hydrological cycle, prior to British settlement in 1788, groundwater levels were in equilibrium. Seasonal recharge, and year-round utilisation of water by deep rooted native vegetation resulted in ground water levels remaining static. Land clearing in Australia has resulted in a loss of native vegetation. These are often annual plants and shallow rooted, and thus, unable to intercept, and adequately absorb stored and this creates an imbalance in the hydrological cycle, and results in dryland salinity. Salinity is classified as a salt content of a substance like soil or water. Salinity can prevent crops and other vegetation from growing leaving land empty, irrigation is also a contributor to salinity. Firstly, the addition of acts to simulate rainfall, and if not applied at appropriate levels, can result in the recharge of water tables. Secondly, irrigation water itself can contain salts, which are deposited into the soil with its use and this level of salt can range from 0.5 -2 tonne per hectare per year, and can greatly increase natural salt levels. Over time this process has caused the thin layers to become irreversibly salty. By 1999 an estimated 2.5 million hectares of land had become salinised since the introduction of European farming methods. Currently, around 5.7 million hectares of land is classed as having potential for salinisation. High soil salt levels have dramatic impact on plant root zones, Salinity can also adversely affect infrastructure such as roads and buildings, and underground pipes and cables through oxidation
19.
Soil salinity
–
Soil salinity is the salt content in the soil, the process of increasing the salt content is known as salinization. Salts occur naturally within soils and water, salination can be caused by natural processes such as mineral weathering or by the gradual withdrawal of an ocean. It can also come about through artificial processes such as irrigation, salts are a natural component in soils and water. The ions responsible for salination are, Na+, K+, Ca2+, Mg2+, as the Na+ predominates, soils can become sodic. Sodic soils present particular challenges because they tend to have very poor structure which limits or prevents water infiltration and drainage. Over long periods of time, as soil minerals weather and release salts, in addition to mineral weathering, salts are also deposited via dust and precipitation. In dry regions salts may accumulate, leading to naturally saline soils and this is the case, for example, in large parts of Australia. Human practices can increase the salinity of soils by the addition of salts in irrigation water, proper irrigation management can prevent salt accumulation by providing adequate drainage water to leach added salts from the soil. Disrupting drainage patterns that provide leaching can also result in salt accumulations, an example of this occurred in Egypt in 1970 when the Aswan High Dam was built. The change in the level of water before the construction had enabled soil erosion. After the construction, the high level of the water table led to the salination of the arable land. Salinity in drylands can occur when the table is between two and three metres from the surface of the soil. The salts from the groundwater are raised by capillary action to the surface of the soil and this occurs when groundwater is saline, and is favored by land use practices allowing more rainwater to enter the aquifer than it could accommodate. For example, the clearing of trees for agriculture is a reason for dryland salinity in some areas. Salinity from irrigation can occur over time wherever irrigation occurs, since almost all water contains dissolved salts. When the plants use the water, the salts are left behind in the soil, since soil salinity makes it more difficult for plants to absorb soil moisture, these salts must be leached out of the plant root zone by applying additional water. This water in excess of plant needs is called the leaching fraction, salination from irrigation water is also greatly increased by poor drainage and use of saline water for irrigating agricultural crops. Salinity in urban areas often results from the combination of irrigation, irrigation is also now common in cities
20.
Leaching (agriculture)
–
In agriculture, leaching refers to the loss of water-soluble plant nutrients from the soil, due to rain and irrigation. Soil structure, crop planting, type and application rates of fertilizers, Leaching may also refer to the practice of applying a small amount of excess irrigation where the water has a high salt content to avoid salts from building up in the soil. Where this is practiced, drainage must also usually be employed, Leaching is an environmental concern when it contributes to groundwater contamination. As water from rain, flooding, or other sources seeps into the ground, it can dissolve chemicals, of particular concern are hazardous waste dumps and landfills, and, in agriculture, excess fertilizer, improperly stored animal manure, and biocides. Nitrogen is an element in nature and an essential plant nutrient. Approximately 78% of Earths atmosphere is nitrogen, the strong bond between the atoms of N2 makes this gas quite inert and not directly usable by plants and animals. As nitrogen naturally cycles through the air, water and soil it undergoes various chemical and biological transformations, livestock then eat the crops producing manure, which is returned to the soil, adding organic and mineral forms of nitrogen. The cycle is complete when the next crop uses the amended soil, to increase food production, fertilizers, such as nitrate and ammonium, which are easily absorbed by plants, are introduced to the plant root zone. However, soils do not absorb the excess NO3 ions, which then move freely with drainage water. The degree of leaching is affected by, soil type and structure, for example, sandy soil holds little water while clay soils have high water-retention rates, the amount of water used by the plants/crops, how much nitrate is already present in the soil. The level of nitrous oxide in the Earths atmosphere is increasing at a rate of 0.2 to 0. 3% annually, anthropogenic sources of nitrogen are 50% greater than from natural sources, such as, soils and oceans. Leached agricultural inputs, i. e. fertilizers and manures, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimates world demand for nitrogen fertilizers will increase by 1. 7% annually between 2011 and 2015. An increase of 7.5 million tonnes, regional increases of nitrogen fertilizer use are expected to be 67% by Asia, 18% by the Americas, 10% by Europe, 3% by Africa, and 1% by Oceania. High levels of NO3 in water can adversely affect oxygen levels for humans and aquatic systems. Human health issues include methemoglobinemia and anoxia, commonly referred to as blue baby syndrome, as a result of these toxic effects, regulatory agencies limit the amount of NO3 permissible in drinking water to 45–50 mg1-1. Eutrophication, a decline in oxygen content of water, of systems can cause the death of fish. Finally, leaching of NO3 from acidic sources can increase the loss of calcium and other soil nutrients, Leaching Leaching model Soil salinity control SahysMod International Panel on Climate Change On line, R. J. Oosterbaan, Water and salt balances in agricultural hydrology. Lecture notes, International Course on Land Drainage, ILRI, Wageningen, saltMod, A tool for interweaving of irrigation and drainage for salinity control
21.
Soil salinity control
–
Soil salinity control relates to controlling the problem of soil salinity and reclaiming salinized agricultural land. The aim of soil salinity control is to prevent soil degradation by salination, Soil reclamation is also called soil improvement, rehabilitation, remediation, recuperation, or amelioration. The primary man-made cause of salinization is irrigation, river water or groundwater used in irrigation contains salts, which remain behind in the soil after the water has evaporated. The primary method of controlling soil salinity is to permit 10-20% of the water to leach the soil. The salt concentration of the water is normally 5 to 10 times higher than that of the irrigation water, thus salt export matches salt import. Salty soils are soils that have a salt content. The predominant salt is sodium chloride. Saline soils are therefore also sodic soils but there may be sodic soils that are not saline, according to a study by UN University, about 62 million hectares of the worlds irrigated lands are affected, up from 45 million hectares in the early 1990s. Salty soils are a feature and an environmental problem in irrigated lands in arid and semi-arid regions. The problems are associated with high water tables, caused by a lack of natural subsurface drainage to the underground. Worldwide, the factor in the development of saline soils is a lack of precipitation. Most naturally saline soils are found in regions and climates of the earth. For example, assuming irrigation water with a low concentration of 0.3 g/l. In the absence of sufficient natural drainage and without a proper leaching and drainage program to remove salts, this would lead to a high soil salinity and reduced crop yields in the long run. Much of the used in irrigation has a higher salt content than in this example. Sugar cane, for example, needs about 20,000 m3/ha of water per year, as a result, irrigated areas often receive more than 3,000 kg/ha of salt per year and some receive as much as 10,000 kg/ha/year. The secondary cause of salinization is waterlogging in irrigated land, irrigation causes changes to the natural water balance of irrigated lands. Large quantities of water in irrigation projects are not consumed by plants, in irrigation projects it is impossible to achieve 100% irrigation efficiency where all the irrigation water is consumed by the plants
22.
Leaching model (soil)
–
The model may describe the process in time and as a function of amount of water applied. Leaching is often done to reclaim saline soil or to conserve a favorable salt content of the soil of irrigated land as all water contains salts. The leaching process in a salty soil to be reclaimed is illustrated in the curves of figure 1, derived from data of the Chacupe pilot area. It shows the soil salinity in terms of electrical conductivity of the solution with respect its initial value as a function of amount of water percolating through the soil. The salinity of the soil first increases due to the salts leached from the top-soil. Owing to irregular distribution of salt in the soil or to irregularity of the soil structure, soils with a low leaching efficiency are difficult to reclaim. In the Tagus delta, Portugal, the efficiency of the dense clay soil was found as low as 0.10 to 0.15. The soil could not be developed for agriculture and was used for rearing of bulls in coarse natural pasture. The clay soil in the Nile delta, Egypt, on the hand has a much better leaching efficiency of 0.7 to 0.8. In figure 3, leaching curves are shown for different leaching efficiencies, the observed values of soil salinity correspond best to a leaching efficiency of about 0.75. The figure illustrates the process of leaching efficiency, which parameter is difficult to measure directly. From figure 1 it is seen that 800 mm of water is required to bring the soil salinity down to 60% of its value in the soil layer at 40 to 60 cm depth. The annual amount of water required to conserve an acceptable salt balance of the soil in accordance with the salt tolerance of the crops to be grown. The ratio FL = Perc/Irr, where Perc = amount of required percolation water, articles on soil salinity, Download leaching model, Download SaltMod from, Salt and water balances, Salt tolerance of crops, Software for salinity models
23.
Irrigation in viticulture
–
Irrigation in viticulture is the process of applying extra water in the cultivation of grapevines. It is considered controversial and essential to wine production. In the physiology of the grapevine, the amount of water affects photosynthesis and hence growth. While climate and humidity play important roles, a grape vine needs 25-35 inches of water a year, occurring during the spring and summer months of the growing season. A vine that does not receive the amount of water will have its growth altered in a number of ways. In many Old World wine regions, natural rainfall is considered the source for water that will still allow the vineyard to maintain its terroir characteristics. The practice of irrigation is viewed by critics as unduly manipulative with the potential for detrimental wine quality due to high yields that can be artificially increased with irrigation. In very dry climates that receive little rainfall, irrigation is considered essential to any viticultural prospects, many New World wine regions such as Australia and California regularly practice irrigation in areas that couldnt otherwise support viticulture. Advances and research in these regions, have shown that potential wine quality could increase in areas where irrigation is kept to a minimum. If the vine receives too much stress, then photosynthesis. The practice of irrigation has a history in wine production. Archaeologists describe it as one of the oldest practices in viticulture, with irrigation canals discovered near vineyard sites in Armenia, irrigation was already widely practiced for other agricultural crops since around 5000 BC. A somewhat robust plant, the grapevines largest need is for sufficient sunshine, in areas where its water needs are unfulfilled, the availability of irrigation meant that viticulture could still be supported. In the 20th century, the wine industries of California, Australia. With the development of more cost efficient and less labor-intensive ways of watering the vines, vast tracts of very sunny but dry lands were able to be converted into wine-growing regions. This created a stark contrast to the Old World wine regions of Europe where vintage variation, the presence of water is essential for the survival of all plant life. In the absence of sufficient water in the soil, the system of the vine may have difficulties absorbing these nutrients. Within the structure of the plant itself, water acts as a transport within the xylem to bring nutrients to all ends of the plant
24.
Irrigation statistics
–
This page shows statistical data on irrigation of agricultural lands worldwide. The appended table gives an overview of irrigated areas in the world in 2003 Only the countries with more than 10 million ha of irrigated land are mentioned. Including India, China and Pakistan There are 4 countries with 5 to 10 million ha irrigated land, Iran, Mexico, Turkey, the source of irrigation water in these cases often is groundwater from aquifers. However, the exploitation of aquifers can also be combined with surface irrigation at field level, in relatively small areas one applies subirrigation whereby the water infiltrates into the soil below the soil surface from pipes or ditches. The sailaba system in Balochistan is an example flood-plain irrigation, which may occur in dry zones in larger river plains, bunds are constructed to retain the river floods and the lands are being planted to crops when the floods recede. Borders are made along the strip to prevent the water of spreading out to neighboring fields, level-basin irrigation, in which the water is set up on the soil surface quickly on leveled plots and given time to infiltrate. The basins are surrounded by borders to retain the water, basins can be used for any crop. The combination of basins with furrows without slope is applied for relatively large plants like cotton, maize, for crops sown by broadcast, like some cereals, one uses basins with corrugations drawn in the soil. In orchards one may make relative small basins around the trees, basin irrigation can be used both in flat areas and sloping lands. In the latter case, terraces have to be made, the spectacular terraces pictured were made by hand, a tedious job, and they are an amazing world heritage. Rice grown in the basins of terraces is often irrigated continuously whereby the water flows from one field to the other. The main reason of the submergence is weed control, but the needs to be of a variety that tolerates waterlogging. Furrow irrigation, in which the water moves over the field in furrows between ridges on which the crop is planted, the water infiltrates into the soil from the furrows. The furrows can be both in sloping and flat land. In steep sloping land they are laid out at a mild slope at an angle with the topographic contour lines to avoid soil erosion. From 1955 to 1975 the annual growth of the area was almost 3%. From 1970 to 1982 the growth rate was some 2% per year, the growth rate of irrigated area is decreasing. Irrigation schemes in the world use about 3500 km3 water per year and this is some 80% of all water used by mankind
25.
Irrigation management
–
This article is about organizational forms and means of management of irrigation water at project level. Scholars such as Julian H. Steward and Karl August Wittfogel have seen the management of irrigation as a factor in the development of many early states. The most important physical elements of a project are land. The enterprise type of management occurred under large landowners or agricultural corporations. Both the land and water resources are in one hand, large plantations were found in colonised countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, but also in countries employing slave labor. It concerned mostly the large scale cultivation of crops such as bananas, sugarcane. The utility type of water management occurs in areas where the land is owned by many, the water management signified a large subsidy on irrigation schemes. In the past, the utility type of water management witnessed more conflicts, Irrigation water has a price by which the management costs must be covered. The use of groundwater for irrigation is often licensed by government, an effective development occurred in Mexico, where in 1990 a program of WUAs was initiated with tradable water rights. By 1998 some 400 WUAs were in operation commanding on average 7600 ha per WUA and they were able to recover more than 90% of the tariffs, mainly because they had to be paid in advance. Government subsidies to the distribution and maintenance reduced to only 6% See also Irrigation in Mexico#Legal and institutional framework. Similar efforts were made in Peru, see Irrigation in Peru#Legal and institutional framework, in large irrigation schemes, the distribution of irrigation water and the delivery at the farm gate is often arranged by rotational turns. The quantity of water to be received is proportional to the farm size. As the canals usually transport constant flows, the water is being received during a period of time proportional to the farm size, the method of rotational turns is typical for the utility form of irrigation management. In smaller irrigation schemes the water delivery may be arranged on demand with water charges are on a volumetric basis and this requires a precise bookkeeping system. As the demand may be fluctuating over time, the distribution system, during periods of water scarcity, negotiations are due to regulate the supply or restriction agreements must have been made. From point of view of efficient irrigation water-use this is the most effective system, hence, the number of farmers that are able to grow an irrigated crop may vary from year to year according to the riparian water rights. The preferential method of irrigation can be found in irrigation systems
26.
International Standard Book Number
–
The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
27.
Water resources
–
Water resources are sources of water that are potentially useful. Uses of water include agricultural, industrial, household, recreational and environmental activities, the majority of human uses require fresh water. 97% of the water on the Earth is salt water and only three percent is water, slightly over two thirds of this is frozen in glaciers and polar ice caps. The remaining unfrozen freshwater is mainly as groundwater, with only a small fraction present above ground or in the air. The framework for allocating resources to water users is known as water rights. Surface water is water in a river, lake or fresh water wetland, surface water is naturally replenished by precipitation and naturally lost through discharge to the oceans, evaporation, evapotranspiration and groundwater recharge. All of these factors affect the proportions of water loss. Human activities can have a large and sometimes devastating impact on these factors, humans often increase storage capacity by constructing reservoirs and decrease it by draining wetlands. Humans often increase runoff quantities and velocities by paving areas and channelizing the stream flow, the total quantity of water available at any given time is an important consideration. Some human water users have an intermittent need for water, for example, many farms require large quantities of water in the spring, and no water at all in the winter. To supply such a farm with water, a water system may require a large storage capacity to collect water throughout the year. Other users have a continuous need for water, such as a plant that requires water for cooling. To supply such a plant with water, a surface water system only needs enough storage capacity to fill in when average stream flow is below the power plants need. Nevertheless, over the term the average rate of precipitation within a watershed is the upper bound for average consumption of natural surface water from that watershed. Natural surface water can be augmented by importing water from another watershed through a canal or pipeline. It can also be artificially augmented from any of the sources listed here. Humans can also cause water to be lost through pollution. Brazil is the estimated to have the largest supply of fresh water in the world, followed by Russia
28.
Water supply and sanitation in Burkina Faso
–
This article was written in 2010. An estimated one third of water facilities in rural areas are out of service because of a lack of maintenance, access to improved sanitation lags significantly behind access to water supply. The government and donor agencies alike consider urban water supply in Burkina Faso one of the development success stories in Sub-Saharan Africa. Access to a water source in urban areas increased from 73% in 1990 to 95% in 2008. Water supply that used to be intermittent now is continuous, the national utility Office National de l’Eau et de l’Assainissement was insolvent twenty years ago and provided poor service to a small number of customers. As of 2010, it has grown substantially and is financially healthy, the World Bank and USAID today consider the public company one of the best performing water utilities in Sub-Saharan Africa. Increasing cost recovery and improving the efficiency of service provision have been important elements in the turnaround of the utility, in the late 1990s, the World Bank had insisted that the private sector should play a significant role in providing water services in Burkina Faso. Instead, it pragmatically integrated certain principles of market-oriented sector reforms into its own policies in order to increase the performance of the public utility. In rural areas, a 2004 decentralization law has responsibility for water supply to the countrys 301 municipalities which have no track record in providing or contracting out these services. Implementation of the decentralization has been slow, municipalities, whose capacities are being strengthened, are contracting out service provision to local private companies, or in some cases to ONEA. The government has adopted a National Sanitation Strategy in 2008 and President Blaise Compaoré launched a campaign in 2010 to boost the implementation of the strategy. Gudinva Saloh is Burkina Fasos current Minister of Sanitation, having been appointed to position in February 2016 by President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré. These surveys typically assess the availability of infrastructure, not service quality, the 2008 estimates for Burkina Faso thus indicate access rates to an improved water source of 95 percent in urban areas and 72 percent in rural areas. The Government relies on a different approach, based on the concept of reasonable access. This concept differs from the JMP approach by taking into account aspects of quality, such as waiting time. According to the government approach, the water rates in 2005 were lower than under the JMP approach. While the “reasonable access” approach is sophisticated, it also faces greater challenges in terms of availability of data. According to JMP estimates access to a water source in urban areas increased from 73% in 1990 to 95% in 2008
29.
Water resources management in modern Egypt
–
Most of this article was written in 2009, with subsequent updates on certain aspects, most recently in 2013. In addition, the waters of the Nile support aquatic ecosystems that are threatened by abstraction and pollution, Egypt also has substantial fossil groundwater resources in the Western Desert. A key problem of water management in Egypt is the imbalance between increasing water demand and limited supply. In order to ensure future water availability coordination with the nine upstream Nile riparian countries is essential, the Nile Basin Initiative provides a forum for such cooperation. In the 1990s the government launched three mega-projects to increase irrigation on new lands and they are located in the Toshka area, on the fringe of the Western Nile Delta, and in the Northern Sinai. The history of water management in Egypt begins with the construction of the Old Aswan Dam in 1902 and barrages on the Nile in the 19th. The water regime of the river was changed fundamentally in 1970 when the Aswan High Dam was completed, unrelated to the construction of the Aswan High Dam, water quality deteriorated through drainage return flows and discharges of untreated municipal and industrial wastewater. Beginning in the 1980s wastewater treatment improved and water quality in the Nile gradually improved again, until 1992 the government decided which crops farmers had to grow, which allowed the authorities to deliver specific volumes of water to each canal based on the water needs of the crops. In 1992 a major change occurred when cropping patterns were liberalized, at the same time the government began to transfer the responsibility for the management of branch canals to water user associations, a process called irrigation management transfer. In the mid-1990s the government also initiated three mega-projects to expand irrigation to new lands in the desert, Water resources management in Egypt depends on a complex set of infrastructure along the entire length of the river. The key element of this infrastructure is the Aswan High Dam that forms Lake Nasser, the High Dam protects Egypt from floods, stores water for year-round irrigation and produces hydro power. Downstream of the Aswan Dam, there are seven barrages to increase the water level so that it can flow into first-level irrigation canals. One of them is the 350 km long Ibrahimiya Canal completed in 1873 and it branches off the left bank of the Nile in Assiut and then runs parallel to the river. Its discharge was increased by the Assiut Barrage completed in 1903, Water also flows from the Nile to the Faiyum Oasis through a canal called Bahr Yussef that dates back to Pharaonic times. From the oasis it flows to the Birket Qarun, the Fresh Water Canal runs from Cairo to Ismailia and the Sweet Water Canal runs in parallel to the Suez Canal, supplying drinking water to the cities along the Canal. Both canals were completed in 1863, the Mahmoudiyah Canal links the Nile to Alexandria. Completed in 1820 it used to have an important role for navigation, Irrigation canals are classified into principal canals, main canals, branch canals, distribution canals and irrigation ditches. Flow in the principal and main canals is continuous, in the branch, however, the government supports a process of converting some of the lower-level canals gradually to continuous flow
30.
Office du Niger
–
The Office du Niger is a semi-autonomous government agency in Mali that administers a large irrigation scheme in the Ségou Region of the country. Water from the Niger River is diverted into a system of canals at the Markala dam 35 kilometres downstream of Ségou. The water is used to irrigate nearly 100,000 hectares of the alluvial plains to the north. Although the French colonial administration constructed the system to produce cotton for the textile industry, around 320,000 tons are grown each year representing 40 percent of the total Malian production. Large quantities of cane are also grown in joint ventures between a Chinese company and the Malian state. The irrigation scheme uses 2.7 km3 of water each year corresponding to around 10 percent of the flow of the Niger River. The Niger, and its tributaries, the Sankarani, the Niandan, the Milo and the Tinkisso, rise in Guinea Highlands and the Fouta Djallon nearly 750 kilometres to the southwest of Markala. The short but relatively intense rainy season produces a surge of water flowing down the system which in turn leads to the flooding of the Inner Niger Delta. Since the construction of the Sélingué hydroelectric dam on the Sankarani in 1982, the average discharge is around 800 m3, but there are large year-to-year variations in the intensity of the monsoon and thus in the water flowing in the river. In a dry year such as 1989, the discharge was only 539 m3. The Markala Dam maintains the water in the Niger at a level 5.5 m above the lowest point of the river bed. Water for the Office du Niger scheme is diverted into the irrigation canal. Before the construction of the Markala Dam these channels would fill with water during the annual flood, the Canal Adducteur has a capacity of 287 m3/s and runs for 9.8 km to the junction called Point A. To satisfy some of the requirements, there is an international agreement to allow at least 40 m3/s of water to flow past the Markala dam at all times. In March this left on average only 60 m3/s available for irrigation, the water released by the Sélingué Dam to generate electrical power increased the flow of water in the dry season. The maximum amount of water diverted from the river is set by the dimensions of the canal. Until the upgrade associated with the Alatona project in 2007-12 the greatest flow was around 147 m3/s, taking into account the 40 m3/s passing through the dam, the Niger would need a flow of at least 326 m3/s to satisfy the demand. The river only has this amount of water between July and December in an year and between August and November in a dry year
31.
Water supply and sanitation in Morocco
–
This article was last comprehensively updated in May 2010, with a partial update in July 2014. Water supply and sanitation in Morocco is provided by an array of utilities. The latter is in charge of water supply to the aforementioned utilities, water distribution in about 500 small towns, as well as sewerage. There have been improvements in access to water supply, and to a lesser extent to sanitation. Remaining challenges include a low level of treatment, lack of house connections in the poorest urban neighborhoods. In 2005 a National Sanitation Program was approved that aims at treating 60% of collected wastewater, Morocco has about 22 billion cubic meter of conventional renewable water resources per year equivalent to 730 cubic meter/capita/year. Morocco has about 100 dams of various sizes with a storage capacity of 15 billion cubic meter. It was estimated that in 2004 about 13.5 billion m3 were withdrawn, 83% of withdrawals were for agriculture and 17% for municipal and industrial uses. However, water resources are not divided equally in space and time, with most of the resources available in the North. In addition, the quality of resources is degraded through pollution. Morocco is divided in seven major basins and a number of smaller basins. The seven major basins from North to South are the Loukkos River, the Moulouya River, the Sebou River, the Bou Regreg River, the Oum Er-Rbia River, the Tensift River, except for the Loukkos River, all these rivers originate in the Atlas Mountains. Water use for municipal and industrial uses was about 2.28 billion m3 in 2003, groundwater resources are overexploited in parts of the country, in particular in the Sous-Massa area in the South where irrigation is the predominant water user. So far there is limited planned reuse of reclaimed water in Morocco, in 2009 there were more than 100 wastewater treatment plants in Morocco, mostly serving small and medium-sized towns located in the interior or the country. The first wastewater treatment plants in Morocco were built by small municipalities using a range of technologies. Because of the financial and technical capacities of those municipalities practically all of these 28 plants ceased functioning shortly after they were completed. This triggered a decision in 2000 to gradually transfer the responsibility for sanitation in small, in 2009 the latter has built or was in the process of building 43 plants, mostly using the stabilization pond technology, but also one activated sludge plant and a few trickling filter plants. The track record of operating these plants is better than for the plants operated by municipalities and its lower operating costs make it less vulnerable to disruptions in the case of strained operating budgets
32.
Water supply and sanitation in South Africa
–
Water supply and sanitation in South Africa is characterised by both achievements and challenges. After the end of Apartheid South Africas newly elected government struggled with the growing service and backlogs with respect to access to water supply. The government thus made a commitment to high service standards. South Africa also has a water industry with a track record in innovation. However, much progress has been achieved on sanitation, Access increased only from 71% to 79% during the same period. Significant problems remain concerning the sustainability of service providers, leading to a lack of attention to maintenance. The uncertainty about the ability to sustain funding levels in the sector is also a concern. The city has connected 1.3 million additional people to piped water and it also was South Africas first municipality to put free basic water for the poor into practice. Furthermore, it has promoted rainwater harvesting, mini hydropower and urine-diverting dry toilets, Water availability in South Africa varies greatly in space and time. While the West is dry with rainfall only during the summer and as low as 100mm, total annual surface runoff is estimated at 43 to 48 km3, depending on the source. Much of the runoff is lost through flood spillage, so that the surface water resources are estimated at 14 km3/year only. Although groundwater is limited due to conditions, it is extensively utilised in the rural. Available groundwater is estimated at 1 km3/year, the main rivers are the Orange River draining to the Atlantic Ocean, the Limpopo River, the Incomati River, the Maputo River, the Tugela River, the Olifants River, and the Breede River. The Incomati, Maputo, Thukela and Limpopo all drain to the Indian Ocean, South Africas most important rivers are transboundary, The Orange River is shared with Botswana, Namibia and Lesotho, the water tower of Southern Africa. The Limpopo-Olifants river basin is shared with Botswana, Zimbabwe and Mozambique, International commissions of all riparian countries have been set up to manage these transboundary water resources. Potential future water resources are seawater desalination or the transfer of water from the Zambezi River, total annual water withdrawal was estimated at 12.5 km3 in 2000, of which about 17% was for municipal water use. In the northern parts of the country, both water and groundwater resources are nearly fully developed and utilised. In the well-watered southeastern regions of the country significant undeveloped and little-used resources exist, Cape Town receives its drinking water from an extensive system of rivers and dams, including the Berg River Dam
33.
Gezira Scheme
–
The Gezira Scheme is one of the largest irrigation projects in the world. It is centered on the Sudanese state of Al Jazirah, just southeast of the confluence of the Blue, the Gezira Scheme was begun by the British while the area was governed as part of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. Water from the Blue Nile is distributed through canals and ditches to tenant farms lying between the Blue and White Nile rivers, the Gezira is particularly suited to irrigation because the soil slopes away from the Blue Nile and water therefore naturally runs through the irrigation canals by gravity. The soil has a clay content which keeps down losses from seepage. Reginald Wingate, The British governor-general of Sudan originally envisaged the farmers growing wheat, when it was discovered that Egyptian-type long staple cotton could be grown, this was welcomed as a better choice as it would also provide a raw material for the British textile industry. Cotton was first grown in the area in 1904, after many experiments with irrigation,24 square kilometres was put under cultivation in 1914. After the lowest Nile flood for 200 years, the Sennar Dam was constructed on the Blue Nile to provide a reservoir of water and this dam was completed in 1925 and is about 3 kilometres long. The Gezira Scheme was initially financed by the Sudan Plantations Syndicate in London, the Sudan Gezira Board took over from private enterprise in 1950 and was chaired by Arthur Gaitskell. Farmers cooperate with the Sudanese government and the Gezira Board, the main crop grown in this region is still cotton
34.
Water supply and sanitation in Tanzania
–
This article was written in February 2010 and has only been partially updated since then, most recently in December 2013. Please feel free to update it. Many utilities are able to cover their operation and maintenance costs through revenues due to low tariffs. There are significant regional differences and the best performing utilities are Arusha, the Government of Tanzania has embarked on a major sector reform process since 2002. An ambitious National Water Sector Development Strategy that promotes integrated water resources management, the Tanzanian water sector remains heavily dependent on external donors, 88% of the available funds are provided by external donor organisations. For example, a report by GIZ notes that despite heavy investments brought in by the World Bank, access to water and sanitation remains low in Tanzania. Determining data on access is difficult because different definitions and sources are used. In 2015, 56% of the population had access to improved water, 77% and 46% of urban and rural areas, respectively. In Tanzania, around 23 million people, in 2015, regarding sanitation around 44 million, in 2015, lacked access to improved sanitation. In Tanzania, in 2015, only 16% of the population had access to improved sanitation, 31% and 8% in urban, according to a report, household surveys regularly return lower rural water supply coverage than estimates by the Ministry of Water and Irrigation. Slightly more than half the population of Tanzania is estimated to have access to a water source. In rural areas, access is defined as meaning that households have to travel less than one kilometre to a drinking water source in the dry season. Trends in access to water supply are difficult to due to conflicting. However, it seems that access increased during the 1990s, particularly in rural areas, according to data from the Household Budget Surveys 2000/2001 and 2007 access to an improved water source in mainland Tanzania even decreased from 55% in 2000 to 52% in 2007. Using a narrow definition, in 2007 around 34% of households had access to piped water, estimates from the Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation show a different trend. They show a decline in access from 55% in 1990 to 53% in 2010. According to these figures, access in rural areas stagnated, while in areas it decreased from 94% to 79% over the same period. National Household Budget Surveys ask respondents about the type of sanitary facility they have, in 2007 93% of Tanzanians responded that they had some form of latrine, but only 3% had a flush toilet. The Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation defines improved sanitation as excreta disposal systems that are private, shared latrines or open pit latrines are excluded from this definition
35.
Water supply and sanitation in Bangladesh
–
This article has last been updated in 2012. Please feel free to update it further, if need be, Water supply and sanitation in Bangladesh is characterised by a number of achievements and challenges. The share of the population access to an improved water source was estimated at 98% in 2004. This has been achieved to an extent through the construction of handpumps with the support of external donors. On the other hand, surface water is polluted and requires treatment. Taking arsenic contamination into account, it was estimated that in 2004 still 74% of the population had access to drinking water. Another challenge is the low level of cost recovery due to low tariffs and poor economic efficiency, in rural areas, users contribute 34% of investment costs, and at least in piped water schemes supported by the Rural Development Academy recover operating costs. Sanitation faces its own set of challenges, with only 56% of the estimated to have had access to adequate sanitation facilities in 2010. Among others, these policies emphasise decentralisation, user participation, the role of women, the Arsenic Mitigation Policy gives preference to surface water over groundwater. Since arsenic was discovered in Bangladeshi groundwater in 1993, the share of population with access to drinking water had to be adjusted downward. Among 11 cities participating in performance benchmarking in 2006–07, none provided water continuously to all customers, within cities, the duration of supply often varies, as it does between seasons. Major water shortages in Bangladesh occur during the dry season, as of 2011, however, intermittent supply was common in at least parts of Dhaka, forcing families to purchase drinking water and use pond or river water for their other needs. Regular power cuts, which turn off well pumps, also contribute to the intermittency of supply, in Dhaka, nearly one third of domestic effluents does not receive any kind of treatment. About 30% of the population of the Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority is covered by a sewerage system. There is one sewage treatment plant with a capacity of 120,000 m³ per day, about 30% of the population uses conventional septic tanks and another 15% uses bucket and pit latrines. During the rainy season, sewage overflows are common, Bangladesh has an enormous excess of surface water during the summer monsoon and relative scarcity towards the end of the dry season in April and May. Internal renewable water resources are about 105 km3 per year, while inflowing transboundary rivers provide another 1,100 km3 annually, Bangladesh heavily depends on the flow of the Brahmaputra, Meghna and Ganges river basins that originate in India, Nepal and China. Whereas deforestation and flood control in the catchment areas increase the flood peaks in Bangladesh, water withdrawals
36.
Irrigation in Iran
–
Irrigation in Iran covers 89,930 km2 making it the fifth ranked country in terms of irrigated area. The Abadan Island in Khūzestān Province is situated between the Arvand and Bahmanshir rivers, the Arvand river forms the boundary between Iran and Iraq and collects the waters from the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. On the island extensive orchards of palm are found thriving on tidal irrigation in the desert climate. The palm tree belt stretches along the Arvand River from Abadan south-east over a distance of about 40 km and is bounded in the interior by a road, the width of the belt varies from 2 to 6 km, and on average it is 4 km. The width is greater in the parts of the river bends. The convex parts have higher river levees and topography, the total area of the belt is about 16000 ha. The tree spacing is around 6x6 m, there are roughly 300 trees per ha. The maximum yield is about 200 kg/tree and 60 t/ha, a sketch of the system of tidal canals is shown in figure 2. They are 2 to 6 km long depending on the topography, the tidal canals cut through and serve the levee soils along the river and they stop where the basin soils of the backswamps begin. The typical properties of the soils are shown in figure 5. There is a well-developed topsoil with a thickness of more than 1 m through which the subsurface water can move in. The tidal movements are 2 m on average, a simulation of tidal fluctuations in the ditches is shown in figure 6 for an average and a high river discharge at various distances from the sea. The simulations were made with the Duflow model, roughly, the cropped area occupies 30% of the land each season, while 70% is left fallow. The winter crops are wheat and barley, while the summer crops are cotton. However, the planting of the new crops is done before harvesting the previous crops, thus, there is a period of overlap during which 60% of the land is under crops. The fallow land is continuously rotated throughout the years, so there exists no permanent fallow land. An estimated average annual balance is shown in Fig. G2. It is seen that the storage of irrigation losses in the plays a important role
37.
Water supply and sanitation in India
–
Drinking water supply and sanitation in India continue to be inadequate, despite longstanding efforts by the various levels of government and communities at improving coverage. The level of investment in water and sanitation, albeit low by standards, has increased in size during the 2000s. For example, in 1980 rural sanitation coverage was estimated at 1%, also, the share of Indians with access to improved sources of water has increased significantly from 72% in 1990 to 88% in 2008. At the same time, local government institutions in charge of operating and maintaining the infrastructure are seen as weak, in addition, only two Indian cities have continuous water supply and according to an estimate from 2008 about 69% of Indians still lack access to improved sanitation facilities. A study by WaterAid estimated as many as 157 million Indian or 41 percent of Indians living in urban areas, India comes top for having the greatest number of urbanites living without sanitation. India tops urban sanitation crisis, has the largest amount of urban dwellers without sanitation, a number of innovative approaches to improve water supply and sanitation have been tested in India, in particular in the early 2000s. In 2008, 88% of the population in India had access to a water source. In rural areas, where 72% of India’s population lives, the shares are 84% for water. In urban areas, 96% had access to a water source. Access has improved substantially since 1990 when it was estimated to stand at 72% for water, in 2010, the UN estimated based on Indian statistics that 626 million people practice open defecation. In June 2012 Minister of Rural Development Jairam Ramesh stated India is the worlds largest open air toilet and he also remarked that Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan have better sanitation records. There should be at least one pump per 250 persons, in urban areas, those that do not receive water from the piped network often have to purhchase expensive water of dubious quality from private water vendors. For example, in Delhi water trucks get water from illegal wells on the banks of the Yamuna River for 0.75 rupees per gallon, as of 2010, only two cities in India — Trivandrum and Kota — get continuous water supply. In 2005 none of the 35 Indian cities with a population of more than one million distributed water for more than a few hours per day, owing to inadequate pressure people struggle to collect water even when it is available. According to the World Bank, none have performance indicators that compare with average international standards, a 2007 study by the Asian Development Bank showed that in 20 cities the average duration of supply was only 4.3 hours per day. None of the 20 cities had continuous supply, the longest duration of supply was 12 hours per day in Chandigarh, and the lowest was 0.3 hours per day in Rajkot. In Delhi residents receive water only a few hours per day because of management of the distribution system. This results in contaminated water and forces households to complement a deficient public water service at prohibitive coping costs, for example, according to a 1996 survey households in Delhi spent an average of ₹2,182 per year in time and money to cope with poor service levels
38.
Water supply and sanitation in Israel
–
Water supply and sanitation in Israel are intricately linked to the historical development of Israel. Because rain falls only in the winter, and largely in the part of the country, irrigation and water engineering are considered vital to the countrys economic survival. Large scale projects to desalinate seawater, direct water from rivers and reservoirs in the north, make use of groundwater. Among them is the National Water Carrier, carrying water from the countrys biggest freshwater lake, Israels water demand today outstrips available conventional water resources. Thus, in an year, Israel relies for about half of its water supply on unconventional water resources, including reclaimed water. A particularly long drought in 1998–2002 had prompted the government to promote large-scale seawater desalination, the history of the development of water supply and sanitation in modern Israel can be divided into distinct phases, beginning with the unilateral development of conventional water resources. In 1937 the national water company Mekorot was created, more than a decade before the creation of the state of Israel, among its achievements was the Shiloach Pipeline along the Burma Road to Jerusalem built during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War and a first pipeline to the Negev in 1955. The Johnston Plan was rejected by the Arab League, but Israel nevertheless abided by its water allocation under the plan, Mekorot began a Rain Enhancement program in 1961, increasing rainfall by 13–18%. A Brackish Water Pipeline to divert brackish ground water from the Sea of Galilee to the Lower Jordan was completed in 1965. The main water resources project at the time, however, was the transfer of water from the Sea of Galilee to the coast through the National Water Carrier in 1965. As a reaction to the construction of the pipeline, Lebanon, Syria and this was one of the events that increased tensions leading to the Six-Day War of 1967 during which Israel captured the West Bank and the Golan Heights. In 1969 the Shafdan wastewater treatment plant south of Tel Aviv was completed to treat approximately 130 million cubic meters of wastewater per year for reuse in agriculture, however, wastewater from other cities and towns remained largely untreated. In 1970 there was an outbreak because of illegal irrigation of salad with untreated wastewater. This gave rise to major investments in wastewater treatment under the National Sewerage Plan, in 1984 the Kishon wastewater treatment plant was completed in Northern Israel. It provides 20 million cubic meters of treated wastewater per year for use in the fertile Jezreel Valley. The 1995 Interim Agreement as part of the Oslo Peace Process provided certain quantities of water to the Palestinians, the surface water of the Jordan River remains disputed with Syria, Lebanon and the Palestinians. Only with Jordan Israel was able to reach an agreement on the sharing of resources in 1995 as part of the Israel-Jordan Peace Treaty. In 1997, the first reverse osmosis plant in Israel opened in Eilat
39.
Northern river reversal
–
Research and planning work on the project started in the 1930s, and was carried out on a large scale in the 1960s through the early 1980s. The controversial project was abandoned in 1986, primarily for environmental reasons, the project to turn Siberian rivers goes back to the 1830s when tsarist surveyor Alexander Shrenk proposed it when the big canal engineering projects were conceived. The project of turning some of the flow of the rivers to the south was discussed, on a smaller scale. Research in that direction was then conducted by the Hydroproject, the dam, some design plans were developed by Zhuks institute, but without much publicity or actual construction work. In January 1961, several years after Zhuks death, Nikita Khrushchev presented a memo by Zhuk and another engineer, G. Russo, about the river rerouting plan to the Central Committee of the CPSU. Despite the ousting of Khrushchev in 1964, talks about the projects of turning the major rivers Pechora, Tobol, Ishim, Irtysh, some 120 institutes and agencies participated in the impact study coordinated by the Academy of Sciences, a dozen conferences were held on the matter. The promoters of the claimed that extra food production due to the availability of Siberian water for irrigation in Central Asia could provide food for some 200,000,000 people. The plans involved not only irrigation but also the replenishing of the shrinking Aral Sea, in the 1970s construction started to divert the Pechora River through Kama River toward the Volga and the Caspian Sea in the south-west of Russia. However, no construction work, nuclear or otherwise, was conducted on that canal. It was estimated that 250 more nuclear detonations would have required to complete the levelling for the channel if the procedure had been continued. Pollution on the surface was found to be manageable, others feared climatic cooling from reduced river water flow, while others thought that increased salinity would melt ice and cause warming. Further work on this canal was soon stopped. In the 1980s at least 12 of the Arctic Ocean-bound rivers were proposed to be redirected to the south, the adverse effect of climatic cooling was greatly feared and contributed much to the opposition at that time, and the scheme was not taken up. Severe problems were feared from the thick ice expected to remain well past winter in the proposed reservoirs and it was also feared that the prolonged winter weather would cause an increase in spring winds and reduce vital rains. Other scientists feared that the opposite might occur, as the flow of fresh water would be reduced. A British climatologist, Michael Kelly, warned of consequences, changes in polar winds. In the early 21st century interest on this Siberian water return project was again resumed and these proposals met with an enthusiastic response from one of Russias most influential politicians at the time, Moscow mayor Yury Luzhkov. Irtysh–Karamay–Ürümqi Canal North American Water and Power Alliance
40.
Water resources management in Pakistan
–
According to the United Nations UN World Water Development Report, the total actual renewable water resources increased from 2,961 m³ per capita in 2000 to 3,420 m³ per capita in 2005. A more recent study indicates an available supply of water of more than 1,000 m³ per person. In view of growing population, urbanization and increased industrialization, the situation is likely to get worse, nevertheless, excessive mining of groundwater goes on. Despite a lowering water table, the growth rate of electric tubewells has been indicated to 6. 7%. In addition, increasing pollution and saltwater intrusion threaten the water resources. About 36% of the groundwater is classified as highly saline, in urban areas, most water is supplied from groundwater except for the cities of Karachi, Hyderabad and a part of Islamabad, where mainly surface water is used. In most rural areas, groundwater is used, in rural areas with saline groundwater, irrigation canals serve as the main source of domestic water. Out of the 169,384 billion m³ of water which were withdrawn in 2000, 96% were used for agricultural purposes, leaving 2% for domestic, by far most water is used for irrigated agriculture, emphasizing the particular significance of agriculture in the country. The sector contributes about 25% of the Pakistans GNP, the country still has the worlds largest contiguous irrigation system. In 1999-2000, the irrigated area in Pakistan was 181,000 km². Water is also essential for generation in Pakistan, since about 29% is generated through hydropower. Water supply and sanitation in Pakistan
41.
Irrigation in Saudi Arabia
–
Center pivot irrigation in Saudi Arabia is typical of many isolated irrigation projects scattered throughout the arid and hyper-arid regions of the Earth. Nonrenewable Fossil water is mined from depths as great as 1 km, pumped to the surface, the circles of green irrigated vegetation may comprise a variety of agricultural commodities from alfalfa to wheat. Diameters of the normally circular fields range from a few hundred metres to as much as 3 km, the projects often trace out a narrow, sinuous, and seemingly random path. Actually, engineers generally seek ancient river channels now buried by the sand seas, the projects, therefore, will have limited production as the reservoirs are drained. Water, of course, is the key to agriculture in Saudi Arabia, the Kingdom has implemented a multifaceted program to provide the vast supplies of water necessary to achieve the spectacular growth of the agricultural sector. A network of dams has been built to trap and utilize precious seasonal floods, vast underground water reservoirs have been tapped through deep wells. Desalination plants have been built to produce water from the sea for urban and industrial use. Facilities have also put into place to treat urban and industrial run-off for agricultural irrigation. These efforts collectively have helped transform vast tracts of the desert into fertile farmland, land under cultivation has grown from under 400,000 acres in 1976 to more than 8 million acres in 1993. Saudi Arabia is suffering from a major depletion of the water in its underground aquifers, as a result of the catastrophe, Saudi Arabia has bought agricultural land in the United States. Argentina, and Africa Saudi Arabia ranked as a buyer of agricultural land in foreign countries. Peak water Crop Circles in the Desert, Nasa Image of the Day
42.
Water resources management in Syria
–
Water resources management in Syria is confronted with numerous challenges. First, all of the major rivers are shared with neighboring countries. Second, high growth and urbanisation increase the pressure on water resources, resulting in localized groundwater depletion and pollution. Third, there is no legal framework for integrated water resources management, finally, the institutions in charge of water resources management are weak, being both highly centralized and fragmented between sectors, and they often lack the power to enforce regulations. There are 165 dams in Syria with a storage capacity of 19.6 km³. The government implements a program for the construction of wastewater treatment plants including the use of reclaimed water for irrigation. The most important rivers of Syria are the Euphrates, the Tigris, the Orontes, all these rivers are shared between Syria and its neighbors. The Euphrates, by far the most important river in Syria, in Syria, it is joined by the Khabur and the Balikh rivers, which both originate in the Syro-Turkish border region. The Tigris River originates in the eastern Taurus Mountains in Turkey and its mean annual flow is 18 km³/year, but very little can be used by Syria due to its remote location. The Orontes River, which flows from Lebanon through Syria to Turkey, has a flow of 0.4 km³/year. The water resources of the Yarmouk River, which is shared with Jordan and Israel and flows into the Jordan River, among Syrias smaller rivers is the Barada River, which flows through Damascus and is one of the few notable rivers that flows entirely inside Syrian territory. The Quweiq River flows from Turkey to Syria and the city of Aleppo, the Nahr al-Kabir al-Shamali rises in Turkey and flows through the northern coastal plain and Latakia. The Nahr al-Kabir al-Janoubi flows through the coastal plain and, on its lower stretch. It has a flow of 0.3 km³/year. Both rivers form part of what is called the coastal basin, the agreements are rather non-binding memorandums of understanding. There is no agreement regarding the Syrian water rights on the Euphrates. However, since 2005 a group of scholars and retired officials from Syria, Iraq and its aim is to promote cooperation among the three countries, including through a joint data inventory. In March 2008 the three countries formed a joint water institute based in Turkey that will work toward the solution of water-related problems among the three
43.
Water supply and sanitation in Turkey
–
This article was last updated comprehensively in January 2011. Water supply and sanitation in Turkey is characterized by achievements and challenges, over the past decades access to drinking water has become almost universal and access to adequate sanitation has also increased substantially. Autonomous utilities have been created in the 16 metropolitan cities of Turkey and cost recovery has been increased, intermittent supply, which was common in many cities, has become less frequent. In 2004, 61% of the wastewater collected through sewers was being treated, policy, regulatory and planning functions are dispersed between five Ministries, the State Hydraulic Works and the State Planning Organization under the Prime Ministers Office. Service provision is the responsibility of about 2,400 municipalities and 16 utilities in the largest cities, external cooperation has played and continues to play a major role for water and sanitation in Turkey. Germany, France, the European Union and the World Bank are the major external partners, in 2015, in Turkey, access to water was universal. Regarding sanitation, 95% of the population have access to improved sanitation, 98% of the urban population, subsequently, there are still, approximately,4 million people without access to improved sanitation. Access to water supply and sanitation in Turkey is high, in rural areas, where less than a third of the population lives, 96% had access. In urban areas 97% had access to improved facilities, compared to 75% in rural areas. In urban areas, 95% were connected to sewers, the remaining 5% being served by septic tanks, there were 138 municipal wastewater treatment plants in Turkey as of 2004. According to the Ministry of Environment, 41% of waste water discharged from a system was treated in 2004. Mechanical treatment was applied to 28% of the treated, biological treatment to 58%. 53% of the wastewater, treated or not, was discharged into surface water bodies, 39% to the sea, 1% to fields. In Istanbul the share of wastewater treated increased from 9% in 1993 to 95% in 2004, in 2008,4.56 billion m3 of water was abstracted by municipalities or bought by them in order to be distributed by them. Of this amount, 40% was abstracted from dams, 28% from wells, 23% from springs, 4% from rivers,111.4 billion m3 of drinking water was sold to 20 million subscribers, and 4.8 billion Turkish Lira revenue was obtained. This implies that the level of non-revenue water – water produced that was not billed – was 48%. According to the results of the 2008 Municipal Water Statistics Survey, actual billed consumption taking into account non-revenue water was 52% of that level, or 112 liters per day. Municipal water use accounts for about 16% of total water use in Turkey, compared to 76% used by agriculture, total water withdrawals for all uses accounted for only 17% of total available water resources in an average year
44.
Water supply and sanitation in Belgium
–
This article has been written in 2009. Please feel free to update it, if need be, there are more than 62 water supply utilities, including 2 regional,30 inter-municipal and 30 municipal utilities. Another 100 mostly small municipalities provide services directly without having a legally of financially separate entity for water supply, Water is not scarce in Belgium and water supply is generally continuous and of good quality. However, wastewater treatment has lagged behind and Brussels only achieved full treatment of its wastewater in 2007. In 2004 the European Court of Justice ruled condemning Belgiums failure to comply with the EU wastewater directive, Wallonia satisfies 55% of the national needs in drinking water while it counts only 37% of the population. Flanders and Brussels are dependent on drinking water from Wallonia, at a level of 40%, an interesting aspect of the Belgian water and sanitation sector is the recognition of a basic right to water. The average water tariff in Belgium for large users in 2008 was Euro 8.92 per cubic meter, between 2003 and 2008 water tariffs in Belgium had increased by 80%, the highest increase in that period among all 14 countries. The major aquifers are located in Wallonia, Belgium does not face water stress, despite its high density of population. Internal water availability is around 12,000 Mio m³/year, or 1,168 m³/capita/year, the yield of groundwater is around 900 Mio m³, exploited at a rate of 75%. This picture hides strong regional disparities, with the North dependent from the South, Wallonia satisfies 55% of the national needs in drinking water while it counts only 37% of the population. Flanders and Brussels are dependent on drinking water from Wallonia, at a level of 40%, the picture is complicated by the strong dependence of the Netherlands on the water of the Maas for its drinking water production. Drinking water production withdraws 707 Mio m³ in 2005, 65% produced from groundwater, often distributed without prior treatment, for example, Brussels receives its water from springs, groundwater and the Maas River, all located in the Walloon region. Modave in the Hoyoux valley, located more than 100 km Southwest of Brussels, the city of Antwerp is supplied with water from the Albert Canal. The city of Liège is supplied from wells pumping from the Hesbaye aquifer, distribution losses are estimated at 13%. According to some sources residential water consumption was 106 liter/capita/day, while other say it was 135 liter/capita/day in 2003. In 2005 the length of the water network was 101,026 km with 4 million connections. In 2001 Belgium had 511 wastewater treatment plants serving 6.6 m inhabitants, 90% of the population was connected to sewers and 47% of the population had its wastewater treated in a public wastewater treatment plant. In 2003 the number of treatment plants had increased to 541
