ABSTRACT
This chapter is concerned with the development and use of general approaches for irrigation management that are not specific to any given irrigation system and can be applied in a broad range of situations. Performance monitoring may be defined as an activity to estimate the performance of an irrigation system in order to enable irrigation managers to determine whether the system is performing at a satisfactory level or not. Action research may be defined as an activity designed to evaluate the range of alternative interventions to improve irrigation system performance, in which interventions based on diagnostic appraisal are made in a representative area of a project on an experimental basis and then carefully monitored and evaluated. Substantial attention has been given to providing a framework for considering water scheduling systems, particularly for large-holder irrigation projects such as those in the United States.
