What is irrigation?
Applying water to
the desired crop rooting zone, at a controlled rate, at a controlled frequency
What is Irrigation used for?
Irrigation is
used to prevent floods from occurring and to water crops and plants easily
without having to do any work
Irrigation System Uniformity: What Is It?
Irrigation system uniformity: the goal of irrigation
system uniformity is distribute the same amount of water to each unit area in
the landscape.
Why is this
important: for turfgrass, every grass plant is in competition with its
neighbors. Each plant is like a small cylinder whose borders are defined by the
sides of the cylinder. A grass plant in a cylinder cannot get water from an
adjacent plant because that plant is also competing for water. The only plant a
single grass plant can go for water is down into the soil, but how far is
limited by the genetics of the plant and soil considerations. Consequently we
want to put water into each cylinder of turfgrass.
To distribute water uniformly you must look at three
factors that affect uniformity:
1. Design effects
2. Maintenance
3. Operation
Keep in mind that in reality you want to emulate the
uniformity achieved with rainfall. The key to assessing uniformity is the
catch-
can measurement. This measurement gives you two very
important pieces of information:
It tells you how the
precipitation rates varies in different spots in the
landscape.
It also tells you what the
actual precipitation rate, which is essential for precision landscape
irrigation.