Irrigation
This section of the Irriworks contains an extensive review of articles dealing with various topics in the field of irrigation and the design of various systems.
Water is a precious commodity
In arid or semi-arid environments, characterized by limited water resources, it is increasingly necessary to allocate fewer water resources or sometimes worse quality resources to agriculture, in order to safeguard the growing water needs for drinking.
At the end of the twentieth century, the world’s water needs were seven times higher than those estimated at the beginning and it is estimated that water needs will continue to grow for the future. Combined civil and industrial consumption create the greatest competition for the agricultural destination of water, which is also on the rise because it is linked to the global growth of the population. Civil consumption increases due to the continuous increase of the world population and the achievement, by some segments of the population, of greater social well-being, which unfortunately is also synonymous with considerable waste. The limited availability of water resources therefore imposes the need to manage irrigation with the utmost attention, eliminating any source of waste, both by reducing consumption and improving efficiency of use. The increase in water efficiency can be achieved through a careful choice of appropriate irrigation methods characterized by high values of irrigation efficiency, such as surface sprinkling or micro-irrigation through which it is possible to considerably reduce consumption, maintaining or even increasing production yields. The numerous advantages offered by micro-irrigation have led to the wide-scale application of the drip irrigation technique also in the field of viticulture, where problems such as efficiency and economy are very much felt.
