ABSTRACT
Conventionally irrigation water is supplied from the dam to the command areas through the Canal Distribution Network (CDN) but inherently it is associated with significant evaporation, seepage and percolation losses. Piped Irrigation Network (PIN) can be feasible alternative for CDN if implemented precisely. It reduces canal conveyance losses substantially and also improves water use efficiency. In this paper an attempt has been made to design cost effective PIN for micro irrigation and applied on initial minors of Pawale irrigation project in Thane district of Maharashtra India. EPANET computer program is used as design tool, with required minimum pressure head at demand nodes and velocity as a constraint to obtain optimal size of pipes in the network. Only commercially available pipe sizes are considered in this study. Discharge requirement at each demand node is worked out by using CROPWAT model considering heterogeneity of command area. The total cost of the network is the summation of cost of each pipe in the network. The network with minimum cost is selected for the design. It is observed that coupling of CROPWAT model and EPANET model have potential to optimise piped irrigation network with micro irrigation in heterogeneous command area.
