In the last two Engineering Your Business columns, we have discussed basic irrigation terms and definitions, decision-I making criteria, and soil-water-plant relationships, including water-quality considerations and consumptive water use of plants. This month in the third part of our six-part series, we will expand with an overview of a few of the more important elements of an irrigation system: hydraulic considerations including allowable soil loading (i.e., water application rate and depth per soil type); water losses and application efficiency; distribution uniformity; irrigation system efficiencies; and seasonal water volume and storage requirements. There are two distinct types of applications that must be considered for an irrigation system. The first includes the instantaneous and average application rates in inches per hour, and the second is the total application over the irrigated area in inches.
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