04227 - Irrigation and Drainage

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, the student will know irrigation and drainage systems, elements releted to projectation. He will developed the understanding of selection criteria applied in farm drainage systems and computation with economic evaluation;the understanding of criteria for the selection of irrigation systems and functional parameters and their calculation;the understanding of problems concerning irrigation water collective distribution.

 

Course contents

Prerequisites training
Prerequisites

The student that attends this teaching should have a basic knowledge of the fundamentals of physics and economics related to cost components, some notions of agronomy and agro-meteorology. Such knowledge and skills are provided by the teachings supplied by the first degree.

1.Drainage (total teaching unit: 8 hours)
1.1. Importance of water in agriculture, meaning of irrigation and drainage.

1.2. Surface and underground drainage: parameters, design, selection criteria-drainage costs – reclamation by means of drainage pumping

Acquired skills - unit 1

a) The student knows the correct technical and economic approach about the subjects thought during the course

b) The student can suggest and design a drainage system both surface and underground

c) The student knows remediation techniques by means of pumping to compare the collective management of drainage water.

2. Irrigation (total teaching unit: 16 hours)
2.1.lrrigation: hydraulic parameters-agronomic irrigation, collective water delivery
Gravitational methods: features and parameters calculation, types of plant and plant schemes, selection criteria
2.2.Pressurized methods: self-propelled sprinklers and irrigation: selection criteria, micro-characteristics: plant characteristics, hydraulic parameters-Types of filters and selection criteria-Fertirrigation: types and parameters calculation, installation and operating costs of irrigation methods

Acquired skills Unit 2
a) The student knows the technical-agronomic and economic characteristics of different irrigation methods both gravitational and pressurized
b) He can choose the more suitable irrigation methods for different farms
c) He knows the criteria for the calculation of the main irrigation parameters for farms
d) He has enough knowledge to calculate the parameters of the various systems of collective water delivery
e) He is aware of the relationship between irrigation costs and yield response to irrigation to assess the degree of convenience of irrigation intervention.

3. Practical application (total teaching unit: 16 hours)
a) Examples of design of drainage systems with economic computation
b) Tutorial on the assessment of irrigation parameters
c) Exercises on practical management of different irrigation systems,  gravitational and pressurized methods with a focus  to sprinkling method, hose reel machines and with microirrigation
d) Exercise on the provision of irrigation schedules in the water collective delivery by means of shifts.

   Skills acquired units 3
a) Experience in design and management of irrigation and drainage case studies in the water collective delivery by means of shifts.

 

Readings/Bibliography

-Lecture notes of the teacher on "Irrigation and Drainage" of the Teacher (in pdf format on the web or copied at the Central Library)
  Texts for further information:
 -C.Costantinidis-General and Applied Hydraulics agrarian-Edagricole
 -Dissemination Center-Agricultural Irrigation Methods-Edagricole
 -Emilia-Romagna Microirrigazione-Department of Agriculture-Series Studies and Research
Louis-Gardens-underground drainage-tube Edagricole
-Angel-Trisoldi L'Irrigazione-Edagricole
-A.Capra, B.Scicolone: ​​ Design and Management of irrigation systems, Edagricole

Teaching methods

The course is divided into three teaching units: the first and the second parts are theory lectures, while the third part is composed by specific exercises or seminars on key topics covered by the course or specific experiences. In more details, the first theory unit will explain the problems related to the drainage, the second will show the topic of irrigation, while the third will focus on practical applications of topics with examples of calculations and technical-economic management on drainage and irrigation.

 

Assessment methods

This teaching is part of the Course INTEGRATED: AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY, IRRIGATION AND with the following other teaching: Technique of agricultural mechanization (Prof.Bentini)
Therefore, the evaluation of the course takes into account jointly the level of knowledge and skills acquired by the student in relation to the contents of all of the above teachings. The knowledge and skills taught in this course are evaluated in the following way: the final exam which will test the student knowledge and skills acquired during the teaching is an oral exam (it will last about 30 minutes) during which the student have to explain some topics (freely chosen) among those listed in the program of the teaching.

Teaching tools

Blackboard, overhead projector, computer, internet access. All the lessons are carried out with the help of Power Point presentations.

Office hours

See the website of Attilio Toscano