DEVELOPMENT OF A GIS-BASED SYSTEM FOR IRRIGATION MANAGEMENT AND FLOW DISTRIBUTION

Abstract. The systematic management of irrigation operation of medium and large gravity irrigation systems (IS) significantly affects the delivery efficiency of irrigation from the source to the farm level. An interactive spatial database that integrates system data handling and irrigation distribution assessment functionality can be implemented, which has not yet been developed in existing NIS in the Philippines. This study proposes a framework model in developing a geographic information system (GIS) database for irrigation systems that integrates a GIS-based irrigation network distribution analysis model. The creation of a model framework for the development of a functional GIS-based database for IS management and flow distribution is comprised of five stages namely: (1) selection and determination of significant irrigation system data, (2) determination of required estimation parameters, (3) GIS development, (4) irrigation network distribution model development, and (5) selection of applicable water distribution assessment techniques. The GIS-based database and integrated model for irrigation provide essential data records of the irrigation system that could easily be viewed systematically and integrated into any GIS. In addition, data packages can easily be shared and run even on low-end computers. Features of the proposed irrigation model include flow volume simulation, time of delivery simulation, irrigation scheduling, remote sensing model integration for automated evapotranspiration computation, volumetric assessment, assessment of the timing of irrigation, and distribution optimization.