BUSCADOR RECOLECTA

The study is focused on providing solutions for the management of water and energetic resources in parkland irrigation networks with the aim of minimizing consumptions originated by their use. An evaluation methodology based on indicators is proposed to assess energetic performance of the system. In the case the system is not managed properly from the energy point of view, an optimization irrigation scheduling by means of genetic algorithms is proposed to improve energy uses. The assessment protocol has been used in the irrigation network of the Universistat Politècnica de València gardens. Results showed that applying this methodology up to a potential saving of 26.8% in energy consumption could be achieved., This work was supported by the SP20120823 grant from Programa de Apoyo a la Investigación y Desarrollo (PAID-06-
12) of the Vicerectorado de Investigación de la Universitat Politècnica de València; and co-funded by the European Commission under the 7th Framework Programme (FP7) for Research and Technological Development (311903) in the
project “Flexible and Precision Irrigation Platform to Improve Farm Scale Water Productivity”.

With the aim of reducing energy consumption and improving water use in pressurised irrigation systems, the methodology to minimise energy consumption by grouping intakes of pressurised irrigation networks into sectors, as developed by Jimenez Bello et al. (2010a), was modified to enable irrigation intakes to operate during the scheduled period for each intake instead of operating during restricted irrigation periods of the same length. Moreover, a method was developed to detect the maximum number of intakes that can operate without extra energy if the source has sufficient head to feed at least some of the intakes.
These methods were applied to a Mediterranean irrigation system, where the total cropped area was mainly citrus orchards. In this case study, water was allocated to two groups of intakes, one fed by gravity and the other by pumps. A saving of 36.3 % was achieved by increasing the total volume supplied by gravity, decreasing the injection pump head, and improving the pump performance. Therefore, all the intakes only operated during the irrigation periods at the minimum required pressure., This research was supported by funds from Climate-KIC AGADAPT and from EU 7th Framework Programme FIGARO projects. The authors wish to acknowledge the support provided by Picassent Sector XI staff. The revision of this paper was funded by "The Universitat Politecnica de Valencia, Spain".

[EN] The high amount of energy required for the operation of pressurized irrigation
networks, and the increasing electric tariffs over the last years have led researchers to
develop new methodologies and strategies focused on reducing the exploitation cost of these
networks. Among irrigation networks there are many in which the head of the source node is
high enough to deliver water to some takeoffs at the required pressure. For these cases,
considerable savings can be obtained by performing the irrigation of the maximum number of
takeoffs without pumping during the hours when energy is more expensive. In this work a
new methodology was developed for maximizing the volume delivered by gravity during a
specific time interval, while guaranteeing a minimum service pressure at each operating
takeoff, by setting the instants when each takeoff starts and finishes irrigation. The
methodology is based on combining a Genetic Algorithm with the hydraulic simulation of the
network using the Epanet toolkit. It was developed in Visual Studio by means of the C# programming language. The optimization was tested on two real cases and it was achieved a
volume increase delivered by gravity of around 30% compared to the current situation., Este trabajo ha sido financiado por el Proyecto Europeo FIGARO (Flexible and
precIse irriGation plAtform to improve faRm scale water prOductivity), dentro del 7º
Programa Marco, en el ámbito “Precision technologies to improve irrigation management and
increase water productivity in major water-demanding crops in Europe” (KBBE.2012.1.1-03).

[EN] Surface Energy Balance Algorithms for Land (SEBAL) parametrized for citrus (Jiménez-Bello
et al. 2015) was applied to an irrigation district during the irrigation season 2014. 22 irrigated
orchards were selected and monthly ratios of ET calculated by FAO methodology (ETFAO),
with no soil water limitations, and calculated ET by SEBAL (ETSEBAL ) were compared to the
ratio of ETFAO and supplied volumes to each orchard (VOL).
Linear and potential trends of ETSEBAL ETFAO-1 compared to ETFAO Vol-1 were determined. In
every month there was a positive correlation for the two trends, showing that ETSEBAL in
stressed crops is lower than ETFAO. The potential trend has shown best determination
coefficients, since for overirrigated crops water percolates and is not registered in the surface
energy balance model.
Instead of further research is needed to know how pixel size and vegetation cover affect
ETSEBAL, SEBAL is a methodology that can be used to estimate citrus water requirements for
large irrigation districts,, Este trabajo ha sido financiado por el proyecto FIGARO del Séptimo Programa
Marco europeo. Los autores agradecen la ayuda proporcionada por el personal del
Sector XI de Picassent.

[EN] Water and energy consumptions at plot level irrigation are issues of broad interest
with an important environmental and economic impact. The solution to this double challenge
requires the implementation of “precise irrigation”. In this work is shown the under developing
software system FIGARO (Flexible and PrecIse IrriGation PlAtform to Improve FaRm Scale
Water PrOductivity), which is part of a project co-funded by the European Commission under
the 7th Framework Programme, in the scope of “Precision technologies to improve irrigation
management and increase water productivity in major water-demanding crops in Europe”
(KBBE.2012.1.1-03). The aim is to develop a tool to support decision-making for end users
that let them perform irrigation scheduling with the aim of reducing water, energy and
fertilizers consumptions, as well as yield crop is maximized. Implementation and validation of
the FIGARO platform is being performed in several countries with different crops and
weather conditions. First results in the year 2014, in citrus and grapevine crops, suggest
increases in water productivity with savings close to 30% of water and 36% of energy at
Water User Association level., Este trabajo ha sido financiado por Unión Europea dentro del 7º Programa Marco, en
el ámbito “Precision technologies to improve irrigation management and increase water
productivity in major water-demanding crops in Europe” (KBBE.2012.1.1-03).