Rsearch Paper

1. IJSRD - International Journal for Scientific Research & Development| Vol. 1, Issue 11, 2014 | ISSN (online): 2321-0613
All rights reserved by www.ijsrd.com 2346
Abstract--- Water is one of the most important essentials for
the existence of life. Agricultural industries are fully
dependent on supply of water. Irrigation is the key element
for development of agricultural sector. Canal irrigation is a
very popular and reliable approach of irrigation. Its
evaluation is very much necessary for assessment of any
irrigation system. Many researchers have tried to evaluate
irrigation systems by different approaches worldwide; here
an attempt is made to review some such researches done,
with particular reference to canal irrigation, in India and
abroad.
Keywords - Performance Evaluation, Irrigation system,
performance indicators, efficiency, uniformity.
I. INTRODUCTION
Land and water are natural finite resources but due to
indiscriminate and unscrupulous utilization, these resources
are diminishing at an alarming rate. To feed the ever-
increasing population of India, it is emphasized that
agricultural production should be improved on sustainable
basis by efficiently and judiciously utilizing the available
resources. Review of prevailing constraints and existing
status of land and water resources gives an idea about
availability and utilization pattern of these resources,
difference between actual and potential output, and scope
for improvement in the performance of system, which is
represented by its measured levels of achievement in terms
of one or several parameters that are chosen as indicators of
the system’s goals.
Irrigation systems are hard to come to reality in today’s
complex socio-economic situations as more emphasis is
placed on environment and other related aspects. At the
same time population and food grain requirements are
increasing at an alarming rate. These constraints leads to
alternatives in the form of reallocations and efficiency
improvements, reuse of water, conservation of water, etc
within sustainability framework. These solutions are
comparatively cost effective and less disruptive to
ecosystems.
Therefore, Performance Evaluation of an existing irrigation
system is gaining attention of researchers, planners and
managers in recent years. It is always wiser to know the
performance of existing system on various aspects and take
a corrective step for possible improvement to it.
Performance indicators can be used as the basis for
improving irrigation systems for better management. Several
efforts have been made to identify universal comparative
performance indicators to analyze and evaluate irrigation
system.
II. REVIEW
The study of various literatures suggests that evaluation of
canal irrigation systems has been done by various
researchers by following different approaches,
a) Using various performance indices or indicators.
b) Using advance techniques of remote sensing and GIS.
c) Using hydrological models.
d) Using Decision support system like Fuzzy logic.
Amongst various researchers work of Burt, Molden, Singh,
Droogers, Style and Marino used performance indicator or
indices to evaluate irrigation system, however Bastiaanssen
and Bos and Ray used advance techniques of GIS and
Remote sensing combine with performance indicators.
Similarly Mishra, Droogers and Bastiaanssen used GIS and
Remote sensing combine with hydrological model.
A. Reddye (1986) expressed performance of an irrigation
project can be measured in terms of technical
efficiencies with which the water was provided to the
crop root zone, total agricultural production from the
project and the equity.
B. Das et al (1992) suggested performance evaluation
parameters of irrigation canal systems should involve
factors such as command area, canal network, control
structures, cropping patterns, and weather conditions as
well as human factors.
C. Mohamed (1992) reported a field multi- objective
evaluation of performance of irrigation systems is
limited. Due to this inadequate understanding of field
conditions, causes and magnitudes of priority problems
were not fully identified especially in less developed
countries. Most studies and reports are either based on
rapid appraisals or concentrating on one part of the
system.
D. Burt et al (1997) emphasized to standardize the
definitions and approaches to quantify various irrigation
performance measures. The ASCE Task committee on
defining irrigation efficiency and uniformity provides a
comprehensive examination of various performance
indices such as irrigation efficiency, irrigation
consumptive use coefficient, application efficiency,
irrigation sagacity, distribution uniformity, adequacy
and potential application efficiency. They proposed
methods to assess the accuracy of numerical values of
the performance indicators.[1]
E. Clemmens and Burt (1997) suggested that evaluation of
actual irrigation system performance should rely on an
accurate hydrologic water balance over the area
considered. They provided equations, procedures and
examples for making these calculations and
Review of Performance Evaluation of Canal Irrigation System
Mr. Ronak .B. Patel1
Dr. N.J. Shrimali2
Prof. M.A. Modi3
1
Student, M.E. Hydraulic Structures - CIVIL, 2
Asso. Professor, 3
Asst. Professor Civil Engineering. Dept.
Faculty of Technology & Engg. M.S.U., Baroda, Gujarat, India

2. Review of Performance Evaluation of Canal Irrigation System
(IJSRD/Vol. 1/Issue 11/2014/0024)
All rights reserved by www.ijsrd.com 2347
recommended that confidence intervals be included in
all reporting of irrigation performance parameters.[2]
F. Molden et al (1998) compared performance of eighteen
irrigation systems located in eleven different countries
through various indicators. They presented nine
indicators namely output per unit cropped area, output
per unit command, output per unit irrigation supply,
output per unit water consumed, relative water supply,
relative irrigation supply, water delivery capacity, gross
return on investment, and financial self-sufficiency.
Results showed large differences in performance among
the systems.[3]
G. Singh (1998) highlighted the need for improvement in
hydraulic performance of conveyance system, equity,
adequacy and efficacy of water supply suitable to crop
production system. He also presented some
performance evaluation parameters in order to assess
the functioning of (i) conveyance, distribution and
application systems; (ii) command system; (iii) crop
production system; and (iv) farmers organizational
network and its linkage with the state departments.[4]
H. Bastiaanssen and Bos (1999) after reviewing significant
works suggested to use remote sensing determinants to
evaluate irrigation performance indicators and
suggested that it refines the spatial scale as compared to
the classically collected flow measurements.
Bastiaanssen et al.(1999) and Sakthivadivel et al.(1999)
assessed performance of the Bhakra Irrigation System
in Haryana using remote sensing data and presented
spatial variation of productivity in terms of land (kg/ha)
and water (kg/m3). They found that differences in
agricultural performance could be ascribed more to the
hydrological setting rather than to the water delivery
performance.[5]
I. Droogers et al (1999) used four performance indicators:
yield over transpiration, yield over evapotranspiration,
yield over flow volume, and yield over depleted water
and they concluded that if irrigation performance
indicators are used only at a local scale, a misleading
picture can be given on the regional scale. This paves a
way for evaluating the management of all water
resources in a river basin context.[6]
J. Mishra et al (2001) applied the MIKE 11 hydraulic
model to the Right Bank Main Canal system of the
Kangsabati project, West Bengal, India and computed a
performance ratio (a ratio of the observed flow rate to
the scheduled flow rate), which was used as an indicator
for assessing the degree of uniformity in flow deliveries
along the length of the canal. A sharp decline was seen
in the performance ratio along the length of the canal
because most of the distributaries of the head and
middle reaches have drawn more than their desired
shares.[7]
K. Droogers and Bastiaanssen (2002) reported that
irrigation performance and water accounting are useful
tools to assess water use and related productivity.
Remote sensing and a hydrological model were applied
to an irrigation project in Western Turkey to estimate
the water balance to support water use and productivity
analyses. Some common irrigation performance
indicators such as the relative water supply, relative
irrigation supply, depleted fraction and process fraction
were quantified.[8]
L. Ray et al (2002) computed multi- temporal remote
sensing data based performance indices namely
adequacy, equity and water use efficiency for the
distributaries of the Mahi Right Bank Canal command
in Gujarat, India. The analysis showed that performance
indicators could identify the problem distributaries, an
intensively managed and studied irrigation system. The
integration of remote sensing data and GIS tools to
regularly compute performance indices could provide
irrigation managers with the means for efficiently
managing the irrigation system.[9]
M. Styles and Marino (2002) utilized and refined a set of
evaluation indicators to describe the irrigation
performance for sixteen international irrigation projects
in less developed countries and found that performance
of many projects was poor. The causes behind the poor
performance of these projects were due to technical,
financial, managerial, social, and /or institutional
causes. They concluded that modernized irrigation
delivery service index can be used as a determinant of
an economic irrigation project performance
indicator.[10]
N. Bandara (2003) used NOAA satellite data to assess the
performance of three large irrigation systems in Sri
Lanka during the 1999 yala (dry season from April to
July): Polo nnaruwa, Kirindi Oya and Gal Oya. In
Kirindi Oya, the relative water supply was higher than
in the other two systems and irrigation efficiency was
considerably lower. He evaluated evapotranspiration
deficit (ETp- ETa), productivity of land, productivity of
water inflow, and productivity per unit ET.[11]
O. Wichelns (2004) expressed the need for innovations in
technology and policy dimensions of water resource
management to achieve gain in productivity required to
feed the world’s growing population.[12]
P. Bhatta et al. (2006) compared performance of agency-
managed and farmer managed irrigation systems for a
case study of Chitwan, Nepal and discussed various
relevant aspects.[12]
Q. McKay & Keremane (2006) examined the institutional
arrangements in Mula irrigation scheme, Maharashtra
state, India. It is observed that Water Users Association
(WUA) is successful in devising and enforcing the rules
for water distribution, fee collection and conflict
resolution.[12]
R. Wegerich (2007) explored aspects of equity of water
allocation amongst riparian states in the Amu Darya
basin and districts within the Khorezm Province of
Uzbekistan. He also discussed various issues related to
equity.[12]
S. Burt (2007) discussed various perspectives of
volumetric water pricing such as physical
modernization, fee structure, enforcement procedures,
and the level of water delivery service.[12]
T. Akkuzu et al. (2007) evaluated general irrigation
planning performance of thirteen Water User
Associations of the Gediz Basin in Turkey. The
objective was to verify the extent to which the targets
have been met for six performance indicators i.e.,

3. Review of Performance Evaluation of Canal Irrigation System
(IJSRD/Vol. 1/Issue 11/2014/0024)
All rights reserved by www.ijsrd.com 2348
irrigation ratio realization level, crop pattern realization
level, adequacy of water supplied, dependability,
efficiency and equity for the year 1999-2002.[12]
U. Molle (2009) discussed about pricing of irrigation water
and irrigation schemes that combine conditions of water
scarcity and volumetric pricing, either at the bulk or
individual level. It is also concluded that scarcity is
almost invariably dealt with through the definition of
quotas. He also discussed advantages and drawbacks of
quotas. Various aspects considered in above studies
helped in identifying the performance indicators to be
evaluated.[12]
III. CONCLUSIONS & OBSERVATIONS
It is observed that evaluation by performance indices is
more popular approach, however in present era of modern
technology software based study using techniques of
Remote sensing and GIS is gaining popularity. Most of the
researchers have used same indices and some have to try to
develop some different indices. It has also been observed
that some researchers have jointly used either Remote
sensing and GIS with performance indices or Remote
sensing and GIS with hydrological model for this study &
obtained very good results.
REFERENCES
[1] Burt, C.M., Clemmens, A.J., StrelKoff, T.S., Solomon,
K.H., Bliesner, R.D., Hardy, L.A., Howell, T.A., and
Eisenhauer, D.E. (1997). Irrigation performance
measures: efficiency and uniformity. Journal of
Irrigation and Drainage engineering 123(6): 423-442.
[2] Clemmens, A. J., and Burt, C.M. (1997). Accuracy of
irrigation efficiency estimates. Journal of Irrigation and
Drainage engineering 123(6): 443-453.
[3] Molden, D. J., Sakthivadivel, R., Perry, C. J., Fraiture, C.
de and Kloezen, W.H. (1998). Indicators for comparing
performance of irrigated agricultural systems. Research
Report 20. Colombo, Sri Lanka: International Water
Management Institute. pp.1-26.
[4] Singh.S.R. (1998). “Peoples managed irrigation systems
in partnership mode-status and method for performance
evaluation”. Proceedings of the National Seminar on
Water management for sustnable agriculture-problems
and perspectives for the 21st Century, IARI, New Delhi,
pp.427-439.
[5] Droogers, P., Kite, G.W. and Bastiaanssen, W.G.M.
(1999). Integrated basin modeling to evaluate water
productivity, Proc. 17th Congress ICID, Question 48,
R1.01, vol.1A, 11-19 September,Granada, Spain:1-13.
[6] Mishra, A., Anand, A., Singh, R., and Raghubanshi, N.S.
(2001). Hydraulic modeling of Kangsabati main canal
for performance assessement. Journal of Irrigation and
Drainage engineering 127(1): 27-34.
[7] Droogers, P. and Bastiaanssen, W. (2002).Irrigation
performance using hydrological and remote sensing
modeling. Journal of Irrigation and Drainage engineering
128 (1): 11-18.
[8] Ray, S.S., Dadhwal, V.K., Navalgund, R.R.
(2002).Performance evaluation of an irrigation command
area using remote sensing: a case study of Mahi
command, Gujrat, India. Agricultural water management
56(2):81-91.
[9] Styles, S.W. and Marino, M.A. (2002). Water delivery
service as a determinant of irrigation project
performance. Presented at the July 21-28, 2002 18th
ICID Congress. Montreal, Canada.
[10] Bandara, K.M.P.S. (2003). Monitoring irrigation
performance in Sri Lanka with highfrequency satellite
measurements during the dry season. Agricultural water
management 58(2):159-170.
[11] Fuzzy Based Performance Evaluation of Irrigation
Subsystems, International Journal of Earth Sciences and
Engineering (ISSN 0974-5904, Volume 04, No 06 SPL,
October 2011, pp 294-297)