Irrigation Management

Learn Commercial Irrigation at Home

This course is a natural progression from Irrigation (Gardens). It can be studied as a stand alone course; however we would normally advise to undertake Irrigation Gardens first.

The following topic areas are covered:

• Ways to optimise water efficiency
• Scheduling irrigation for nurseries, gardens, turf and horticultural crops.
• Drainage system design
• Operating irrigation controllers
• Managing system maintenance
• Managing fertigation
• Evaluating irrigation designs
• Design of different systems

This course builds on skills achieved in Irrigation (BHT210 and BHT204) modules to develop students’ skills to manage the design and operation of large scale irrigation systems for horticultural applications.

Lesson Structure

There are 8 lessons in this course:

1. Waste water and recycling
   • Teaches how to minimize water wastage in irrigation.
2. Measuring water usage
   • Examines how to schedule irrigation for a large scale situation such as a large nursery, crop, turf, garden or pasture.
3. Drainage
   • Presents an analysis the design of different drainage systems
4. Irrigation controllers
   • Looks at the formulation of procedures to operate irrigation controllers, for appropriate tasks
5. System maintenance
   • Examines the maintenance of irrigation systems, both small and large scale
6. Fertigation
   • Examines the management of fertigation of plants through an irrigation system
7. Design evaluation
   • Looks at the evaluation of the design of large scale irrigation systems
8. System design
   • You will learn how to design an irrigation system, including its drainage

Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school's tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.

What You Will Do

• Contact your regional or local water authority.
  • Ask them for information on their water restriction policy.
  • When are water restrictions enforced and how do they affect water users?
  • Focus mainly on the problems experienced by agricultural users.
  • Consider ways that users can minimise their dependence on water access?
  • Write a brief report on your findings and submit with your assignment.
• Visit a property that uses irrigation.
  • Discuss with the manager the methods that are used to decide when to water and how much water to use.
  • Is irrigation an important element in the success or otherwise of the property?
• Choose a drainage system to which you can get access.
  • Remember a drainage system is designed to cope with most situations.
  • They are many examples in your local everyday environment.
  • Some examples might include the guttering on your house or even on your car.
  • Discuss how the system operates and include sketches to show design features.
• Contact a number of companies that offer computerised and technology solutions to irrigation.
  • Obtain prices and information if possible on appropriate working installations of their product.
  • If possible try a follow up visit at least one (1) operation and discuss the product with a user as well as a retailer. If distance or transport is a problem then you could try writing for this information, which would be suitable for the purpose of this set task.
• Visit a property that uses large irrigation systems.
  • Enquire about the maintenance of their systems.
  • Consider how is water quality monitored and maintained?
  • Investigate at least two irrigation supply companies.
  • Observe how they service customers.
  • Consider: are there any other services they provide?