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An Extension education program to help water districts conserve water and operate more efficiently: Introduction
Texas Alliance of Groundwater Districts
Quarterly Meeting
Austin, Texas
February 26, 2014
Gabriele Bonaiti, PhDExtension Program Specialist
Irrigation District Engineering and Assistance Program, IDEA (2009-2012)
Water District Program (2013)
Department of Biological and
Agricultural Engineering (BAEN)
College Station, Texas
Outline
1) BAEN Extension education priorities
2) Examples of past projects with AgriLife
3) Water District Program definition and initial steps
1) BAEN priority on GCD
2) Examples of past projects (IDEA)
I collaborated with:◉ irrigation districts, Municipal utility districts, Water control and
improvement districts (RGBI)◉ river authorities (LCRA)◉ Iraqi Ministry of Agriculture, and Ministry of Water Resources
(USAID)
I conducted mostly demonstration projects
Geographic Information System (GIS) support◉ Training◉ Mapping◉ GIS structure recommendations◉ Analysis
Impact of urbanization
Rating
Rapid Intervention Program (USAID):
◉ Head and drainage problems
◉ Structures and canals condition and seepage
◉ Irrigation scheduling
0
250
500
750
0
550
1,100
1,650
Spill
loss
es (
acft
), ra
infa
ll (in
*100
)
Irrig
ation
are
a (a
cres
)
Irrigation
Spill losses
Rainfall
• Current flows are shown (updated every 15 minutes)
• Critical water levels are highlighted in yellow and red
Database management
Calibration for flow
y = 1.0197x - 0.513R² = 0.9943
-10
10
30
50
70
-10 10 30 50 70
Cal
cula
ted
flow
(cfs
)
Measured flow (cfs)
Cq = 0.70
Modeling crop water requirements
USDA-ARS laboratory, Bushland, TX
Crop
Soil
Rainfall
Irrigation need
Definition
◉ Extension education program to help Water Districts conserve water and operate more efficiently
◉ Water Districts: irrigation districts, groundwater districts, river authorities, Municipal utility districts (MUDs), Water control and improvement districts (WCIDs), and Special utility districts (SUDs)
◉ Work with: County Extension Agents and Water District personnel
◉ Objective: define needs and opportunities, develop cooperative projects, offer training and technical assistance
◉ Field of expertise: management of canal systems, irrigation scheduling, hydrological and crop growth modeling, flow metering and monitoring, water quality improvement, Geographic Information System (GIS) and data management, web-based information technologies, water rights
3) Water District Program
Initial steps◉ GIS training (basic, advanced)
◉ WebGIS demonstration projects
◉ http://www.arcgis.com/home/webmap/viewer.html?webmap=90a6fc461abd48aba3f1a66f33357f40
◉ Test map (Pineywoods GCD)
Irrigation District Engineering and Assistance Program (IDEA) website:
http://idea.tamu.edu
Water District Program
http://baen.tamu.edu/faculty/gabriele-bonaiti/
email: [email protected]
For more information:
