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Effective irrigation and drainage systems are essential if growing demands for water resources are to be met. For the use of water for irrigation to be improved we must understand current levels of performance. This book draws together the growing body of knowledge on irrigation and drainage performance assessment that has been gained over the last twenty years. It provides guidelines for practitioners to enable them to design and carry out performance assessment and implement performance-based management. Developed by a working group of the International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID) it provides a generic framework for performance assessment with guidance on the theory and practice of how to audit and assess the performance of irrigation and drainage schemes.
Irrigated agriculture produces about 40% of all food and fibre on about 16% of all cropped land. As such, irrigated agriculture is a productive user of resources; both in terms of yield per cropped area and in yield per volume of water consumed. Many irrigation projects, however, use (divert or withdraw) much more water than consumed by the crop. The non-consumed fraction of the water may cause a variety of undesirable effects ranging from water-logging and salinity within the irrigated area to downstram water pollution. This book discusses all components of the water balance of an irrigated area; evapotranspiration (Ch.2), effective precipitation (Ch.3) and capillary rise from the groundwat...
This authoritative reference work gives timely information on the global politics of water. Readers will find case studies on a variety of complex water situations, from the Okavango River that flows through Angola, Namibia and Botswana, to the Euphrates-Tigris of the Upper Persian Gulf. With the current threat of climate change and increasing demand on water resources, the book gives valuable insight into an increasingly politicized topic. Politics of Water is a welcome addition to Routledge’s extensive The Politics of ... reference series. Readers will benefit from: essays on major topics in water politics from a variety of contributors (thirteen in all), including Is water politics? Tow...
Arid Land Irrigation in Developing Countries: Environmental Problems and Effects covers the proceedings of the International Symposium on Arid Land Irrigation, held in Alexandria, Egypt on February 16-21 1976. This book is organized into eight sections encompassing 46 chapters. The opening section deals first with the benefits of arid land irrigation and the effective use of water in irrigated agriculture. This section also tackles the public health and socio-economic impacts of irrigation, as well as the planning and managing of irrigation and drainage systems. The next section discusses the results of some case studies on arid land irrigation, such as in districts in Mexico, Iran, and Egypt. Other sections explore the influence of irrigation on changes in hydrological processes and cycle, soil fertility, water quality, and biological balances. The closing sections consider the human problems in irrigation areas, with an emphasis on the problem of schistosomiasis and malaria. These sections also look into the viewpoints of specialist agencies of the United Nations on arid land irrigation. This book will be of value to agriculturists, economists, and researchers.
Albert Einstein may be best known as the wire-haired whacky physicist who gave us the theory of relativity, but that’s just one facet of this genius’s contribution to human knowledge and modern science. As József Illy expertly shows in this book, Einstein had an eminently practical side as well. As a youth, Einstein was an inveterate tinkerer in the electrical supply factory his father and uncle owned and operated. His first paid job was as a patent examiner. Later in life, Einstein contributed to many inventions, including refrigerators, microphones, and instruments for aviation. In published papers, Einstein often provided ways to test his theories and fundamental problems of the scie...
The year 2007 could perhaps accurately be described as the year when climate change finally received the attention that this challenge deserves globally. Much of the information and knowledge that was created in this field during the year was the result of the findings of the Fourth - sessment Report (AR4) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which were disseminated on a large scale and reported extensively by the media. This was the result not only of a heightened interest on the part of the public on various aspects of climate change, but also because the IPCC itself proactively attempted to spread the findings of its AR4 to the public at large. The interest generated on the scientific realities of climate change was further enhanced by the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to the IPCC and former Vice President of the US, Al Gore. By taking this decision in favour of a leader who has done a great deal to create awareness on c- mate change, and a body that assesses all scientific aspects of climate change and disseminates the result of its findings, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has clearly drawn the link between climate change and peace in the world.
The irrigated area in the Aral Sea basin totals about 7. 5 million hectare. Part of the water supplied to this area is consumed by the irrigated crop; the remainder of the supplied water drains to the groundwater basin, to downstream depressions, or back to the rivers. During its use, however, this drained part of the water accumulates salts and chemicals. The disposal of this polluted water causes a variety of (environmental) problems. If the percentage consumed water of the total water supply to an irrigated area (the so-called overall consumed ratio) can be increased, less water needs to be drained. This alleviates part of the related (environmental) problems. Further, if the overall cons...