Urban Irrigation – what is in a name?

We have been consistently using the term urban irrigation to describe use of water for growing plants in an urban context. It is meant to include sports fields, municipal parks and gardens, private gardens & lawns and any other conscious use of water to grow plants in our cities and towns.

However, in the continuing debate and discussion I see going on about urban water supply issues, no-one seems to be using the term. Instead I see generalisations like ‘household demand’ or ‘demand management’ and worse still euphemisms like ‘outdoor water use’ and ‘critical human needs’. This is occurring not just in the popular media but in learned forums like OzWater 10 - the Australian Water Associations Conference.

Why is the word irrigation so unpopular in relation to urban water use for plants? Is it because irrigation is seen as something dirty not to be mentioned directly (like going to the bathroom), or is it because urban water supply organisations still don’t recognise it as core business? I find this both puzzling and worrying so maybe you can enlighten me – post a comment here. (Click here to login as a guest).

I’m passionate about this issue, partly because there is a long overdue debate going on about the sustainability of our cities and how many people we can sustain. In these debates I see people advocating for cities without irrigation, it may not always be obvious but it’s there behind the waffle! Surely lifestyles should be part of this debate, not just how many people can we support? The question shouldn’t just be can we support 36 million Australians but what sort of lifestyle do we aspire to, in which case maybe 22 million is already too many!

Meantime you’ll see in this Inflo we are continuing to develop tools for urban irrigation.

As co-hosts the CRC for Irrigation Futures invites you to submit an abstract and participate in One Water Many Futures, Australian Irrigation Conference & Exhibition to be held in Sydney (Australia) 8- 10 June, 2010.

Abstracts are due by Monday 8 March.

Information on the Program, Session Themes and how to submit your abstract are available on the conference website . Also keep an eye on our keynote speakers list as we confirm a growing list of exciting speakers.

As the Australian irrigation industry undergoes a once in a lifetime policy and practice transformation One Water Many Futures will bring together over 500 irrigation and water management professionals. The conference will look to the future of irrigation and its role in food and fibre production, contribution to our lifestyles and its interaction with the environment.

This major conference and exhibition brings the entire irrigation industry (urban and rural) together at the largest event of its kind held in the southern hemisphere. Both the exhibition and conference will be a major focal point for an industry gearing up to an estimated $30 billion in investment over the coming decade. With over 100 companies, from Australia and around the world displaying the latest in irrigation equipment, technology and knowledge, this will be the place to develop and reorient irrigation and water management to meet its future significant challenges.

Follow us on Facebook to keep up to date on the joint CRC IF and IAL conference and exhibition.

The Cooperative Research Centre for Irrigation Futures (CRC IF) has been offering MasterClasses since late 2008. The final two being offered are on Flow Measurement (Sydney, 16 – 17 March) and Solutes (Melbourne, 13 – 14 April).

Flow Measurement MasterClass 16 – 17 March
Sydney - Manly Hydraulics Laboratory
Participants will receive information on:
• Principles behind flow measurement in open channels and pipes;
• Standards set by the National Measurement Institute that water service providers need to comply with and an understanding of the measurement of uncertainties;
• Methods for validation and insitu reverification;
• Latest research on smart metering technology and automation; and
• Challenges that the new era of metering standards pose and opportunities that may arise from the information that will be provided.

Presenters:
• Bill Heslop – Goulburn-Murray Water
• Jeremy Cape – CapeAbility Consultants
• Alex Winchester – National Measurement Institute
• David Pezzaniti – University of South Australia
• Robert Cook – Manly Hydraulics Laboratory

Solutes MasterClass 13 – 14 April
Melbourne – Werribee
Content to be covered:
• Industry and science context for study of solutes;
• Key principles for understanding salt and nitrates;
• Latest research outcomes;
• Current practices and tools for measuring, analysis and interpretation; and
• Future direction and priority areas for research and practice.

Presenters
• Richard Stirzaker – CSIRO
• Steven Falivene – NSW Industry and Investment (formerly Primary Industries)
• Anne-Maree Boland – RMCG Consultants

Cost for MasterClasses is $770 for early birds, $990 full rate and $550 for CRC IF members and students.

For more information on either of these MasterClasses contact Deborah Atkins on 0415 135 457. To register, click on the link below.

More information...

The CRC for Irrigation Futures' Dr Malcolm Gilles has been awarded the prestigious International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage’s (ICID) 2009 WatSave Young Professionals Award. The award recognises outstanding contributions to water conservation and water savings and follows on from another CRC success with Dr Amgad Elmahdi taking out the award in 2008.

Dr Gilles’ work consisted of the development and testing of three simulation models (IPARM, IRRIPROB and SISCO). Dr Gillies, part of the CRC team, said the software can be used to monitor the performance of furrow, bay and basin irrigation, which are the main methods to irrigate crops in Australia.

“Water savings averaging 20 per cent, and as high as 50 per cent, can be achieved through improved flow rates and scheduled irrigation times suited to various field layouts and soil types. Potential total water savings in Australia are estimated at over 800,000 ML (800 GL) a year.

“The saving is potentially applicable to farming systems in Australia which use more than four million megalitres (4000 GL) of irrigation water,” he said.

The new tools will be integrated into an existing suite of irrigation technology called IRRIMATE, developed primarily by scientists at the University of Southern Queensland. The IRRIMATE service is currently being delivered to Australia’s cotton industry by a network of registered consultants. To date, it has provided $36 million in benefits to the industry in terms of water and energy savings, and productivity improvements.

The CRC for Irrigation Futures' 2009 Highlights brochure is now available online.

The brochure outlines the CRC IF's important outcomes for 2009, placing the spotlight on irriGATEWAY:SMS, urban irrigation, reducing water loss from dams, smart metering, pump performance, irrigation in northern Australia and facing tomorrow's challenges.

Click on the link to download a pdf of the brochure or contact Nukte Ogun to obtain a hard copy.

More information...

CRC for Irrigation Futures Technical Report Series No. 02/09, Resolution of Knowledge Gaps in Irrigation Metering Installation and Verification Requirements for Australian Standards, by David Pezzaniti is now available online.

Executive Summary
The irrigation industry is facing a major change with the introduction of a regulatory flow measurement regime, which includes water accounting and trading of water. Although many existing metering systems are considered to be best practice, there are many installations that will not meet the new regime’s requirements.

To augment the new regime, Standards Australia and the Commonwealth Government’s National Measurement Institute have developed several standards. These standards, specially for non-urban meters, are the first to be developed anywhere in the world. As a result, they are likely to be changed during the introduction period, with a focus on improving the accuracy of meters. Ideally, it would be better if potential improvements can be identified and made before the official implementation phase. This project set out to identify and resolve some technical issues with the standards. In addition, it investigated the types of meter installations that will not meet the current (draft) standards and how they may be modified to comply with the requirements.

This project focused on two areas of metering:
• Typical non-conforming field meter installation, including configurations that meet the equivalent in-field accuracy requirements outlined in the standards; and where a low-cost flow straightening (conditioner) device insert could improve measurement accuracy to meet the field accuracy requirement without the need for significant alterations to the existing pipe work, and;
• Error of measurement by battery-powered meters.

A catalogue of information has been developed which outlines the types of meters and pipe work configuration that pass or fail the disturbance test requirements in the current standards.

With the introduction of the new standards there will be mandatory obligation to demonstrate that meter accuracy requirements are being achieved. Several areas of irrigation metering where knowledge was previously limited have been examined, and the findings from this project have provided additional information important to the development of the standards.

Download the full report at the link below.

More information...

As well as running the Solute Signatures project in the Toolkits program, Richard Stirzaker has been on a Fellowship from Land and Water Australia, with the task of writing a book about water. Richard’s book “Out of the Scientist’s Garden” has just been published. The book is about how the world uses water in the business of feeding itself, but specifically aimed at crossing the boundary between a science and lay audience.

"Out of the Scientist’s Garden" is a personal journey that starts in Richard’s own backyard before venturing out into the river valleys and plains and into the big wide world. It’s a book of stories, each crafted to illustrate the principles of turning water into food.

You can download the first part of the book from www.thescientistsgarden.com (following the links to the CSIRO Publishing web page). Richard is also running a “blog” that accompanies the book. This blog will give a weekly update on growing sweet corn in his garden using waste water from the washing machine. Richard picked this subject because he is often asked about waste water and how to use it productively. More importantly, many irrigators around the world only have access to slightly salty water, and they use this to grow their crops. As we shall see, salt is a huge problem for irrigation.

Each week Richard will show a picture of the crop, report on how much water was used, and track the levels of nutrients and salt in the soil. This is also a pilot experiment to test some new scientific equipment we are developing. The equipment automatically measures how deep the washing machine water moves in the soil and the salt content of the water. The results are sent by mobile phone to the web. The weekly graphs will reveal what happens through the season.

Urban irrigation has borne the brunt of water restrictions across Australia's cities and towns. This has occurred at a significant cost as out lined in a CRC report on Irrigation of Urban Green Spaces. To provide an alternative management option for urban irrigation, Dr Bhakti Devi developed a new tool for rationally assessing urban irrigation during her PhD. WASP has subsequently been developed into an online decision-supporting tool for developing policies and management protocols for sustainable irrigation of urban landscapes.

Bhakti, is now looking to develop a WASP research project to experimentally validate reliable and robust irrigation water requirements for various urban landscapes, located in different soil-climate zones across Australia.

Urban irrigators, local councils and urban water utilities from all across Australia are invited to register their interest in participating in this cutting edge urban irrigation research. Research participation will involve sharing water use, irrigation system, landscape, soil and weather data and where feasible undertaking to periodically monitor and report on water use and landscape outcomes for controlled and non-controlled landscape sites over a period of 12 to 24 months.

In return for research participation, participating organisations will be able to:
• Obtain a license to use WASP online tools for 12 months;
• Develop robust and reliable benchmarks for different types of landscapes located in local soil-climate zones;
• Develop an irrigation optimisation protocol for specific landscape sites leading to sustainable irrigation and maintenance of landscapes;
• Participate in workshops that will be organised as part of the research programme to build capacity in staff to apply the research outcomes; and
• Receive information on the latest developments in urban irrigation research.

To register your interest or obtain more information on the research project or WASP©, please contact Dr Bhakti Devi, Manager, Water Strategy, City of Sydney on
02 9265 9719.

WASP

More information...

This month's feature paper comes from Mark Shepheard and Paul Martin and is entitled Social Licence to Irrigate: The boundary problem. It was published in Acta Horticulturae in 2008. Contact Mark for a copy of the article.

Abstract
The ability of an irrigation business to use water depends on having a property right to access water, but exercise of this right also depends on government decisions to allocate water or invest in water infrastructure. While this secure property right may be necessary, it is far from sufficient. A social licence is also needed.

It has been suggested that a legal ‘duty of care’, or triple bottom line reporting will protect that social licence. This article suggests that such rhetoric masks a fundamental management problem of the lack of boundaries to social accountability. Managers face a conflict between their legal duties to manage the enterprise in the (economic) interests of its owners, and the vaguely defined expectation that they will meet unspecified social obligations.

Shepheard, M.L. and Martin, P.V. (2008). Social Licence to Irrigate: The boundary problem. Social Alternatives, 27: 32-39.

Download the first update on the Australian Government and Industry & Investment NSW's Sustaining the Basin: Border Rivers-Gwydir project.

The CRC for Irrigation Futures is establishing technologies demonstration sites, to demonstrate the new technologies of IrriSATSMS scheduling service, furrow automation and the application of monolayers on storages, and contributing to the training needs identified by irrigators.

Sales of centre pivots and lateral moves are taking off world-wide and no more so than in New Zealand. But, similar to Australia, their irrigators are often ill-equipped to purchase the best system for their operation. CEO of Irrigation New Zealand, Andrew Curtis, on becoming aware of the CRC’s Pivots & Laterals Training Course, asked for it to be delivered in their irrigation heartland with a view to INZ becoming a licensed presenter.

So just before Christmas, Kelvin Montagu and Peter Smith presented a condensed version of the course at Ashburton on the Canterbury Plains, twice in two days. Firstly to around 20 irrigators, and then to around 12 consultants, educators, agency staff, etc. The course was well received both times, and discussions with INZ and others following the second course were positive for a licensing agreement to proceed.

In 2007-08, almost 1 million ML of water entitlements and 1.5 million ML of water allocations were traded throughout Australia for a gross value of around $1.7 billion. As water scarcity grows and its economic and environmental value increases, it is more important than ever to fully account for the volumes of water stored, traded and consumed.

The Water Accounting Standards Board, an independent advisory Board to the Bureau of Meteorology, is currently developing water accounting standards for identifying, recognising, quantifying, reporting, and assuring information about water, the rights or other claims to that water, and the obligations against that water.
Two key documents have been developed and the Board invites feedback on the Water Accounting Conceptual Framework and the Preliminary Australian Water Accounting Standards .

Feedback should be provided to the below email contact.