Principles of Irrigation and Drainage

Irrigation and drainage, artificial application of water to land and artificial removal of excess water from land, respectively. Some land requires irrigation or drainage before it is possible to use it for any agricultural production; other land profits from either practice to increase production. Some land, of course, does not need either. Although either practice may be, and both often are, used for nonagricultural purposes to improve the environment, this article is limited to their application to agriculture. Irrigation and drainage improvements are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Often both may be required together to assure sustained, high-level production of crops. This book was written for three semester-long classes: Soil and Water Resources Engineering, Irrigation Systems Design, and Agricultural Drainage and Effluent Treatment. Agricultural food production and water demand are expected to be critical to the survival of a growing global population. Our hope is that this book will help students and practicing engineers develop food production systems with limited water resources and limit the environmental impacts of those systems. In this way, we can develop sustainable food production systems to meet the needs of the growing population. Agricultural engineers with problem solving and water management expertise will play an important role in the coming decades.