Present and future challenges for hydraulic reliability and energy efficiency in collective irrigation systems: A participatory modelling approach

Maria do Rosário Cameira, Antónia Ferreira, Luis Boteta, Pedro Santos Fortes and Maria João Calejo

Agricultural Water Management, 2025, vol. 309, issue C

Abstract: The HubIS project, through a participatory approach with stakeholders, identified the need to assess the hydraulic and energy performance of the Lucefecit Collective Irrigation System (LCIS) for co-designed future scenarios. With this aim, a tool was developed integrating on-farm demand driven water transport and distribution with energy use. The tool results from a participatory modelling process based on the SIGOPRAM software parameterized and tested for the LCIS current conditions (2022) using a comprehensive data set. The current scenario, in which only 48 % of the command area is irrigated, is characterized by good hydraulic performance, although pressure surpluses were detected in most outlets. Co-designed scenarios anticipate an increase in the irrigated area and a shift towards more water-intensive crops, which could result in up to a 163 % in the peak demand flow compared to the current situation. Even in the most demanding scenario, only a few irrigation outlets experience pressure deficits, accounting for 10 % of the irrigable area. Collaborative discussions with stakeholders resulted in a trade-off strategy between hydraulic reliability and energy efficiency. The tool provides the water users associations with an important basis for decision-making supported by system performance assessment, to ensure sustainability in water and energy use while taking in account future climate and agricultural changes.

Keywords: Irrigation network; Hydraulic modelling; SIGOPRAM; Performance indicators; Scenario analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378377425000691
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:agiwat:v:309:y:2025:i:c:s0378377425000691

DOI: 10.1016/j.agwat.2025.109355

Access Statistics for this article

Agricultural Water Management is currently edited by B.E. Clothier, W. Dierickx, J. Oster and D. Wichelns

More articles in Agricultural Water Management from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().