IRRIGATION AUDITING
Keith McAuliffe looks at the importance of understanding the efficiency of your irrigation system, regardless of what type of facility you manage
A
quality watering system is one of the critical ingredients for year- round high quality turf. Over the summer months an irrigation system is often required to hold turf cover, to enable recovery after use and to provide suitable conditions for players and officials.
Applying water efficiently to turf is critical for a number of reasons, including:
• reducing overall water use to ensure best use of a scarce resource
• lowering the cost of turf maintenance
• optimising plant health and soil performance
• reducing deep percolation water loss or runoff (and associated nutrients),
• improving playing conditions - more uniform and consistent surface conditions
• increasing total playing hours available
Given the growing significance of water as a scarce resource on our
planet, it is inevitable that those using water in bulk will be required to demonstrate efficiency of utilisation in order to retain a permit to apply the resource.
Identifying deficiencies with the watering system
Despite the investment in an irrigation system, too often we encounter poorly designed or managed systems - application of water to turf seems to be a case of ‘out of sight out of mind’. A poor watering system may perform adequately for much of the year and any deficiencies may not show up until a critical stress period is encountered. It would seem logical that effort should be made to ensure a watering system is designed and operated to a high standard.
An irrigation system audit is a means by which the efficiency of the watering system can be determined in advance of problems occurring. It should involve a thorough analysis of how water is used within the system - both with above and below ground water application. The
information derived from an audit will assist the owner/operator to identify if water is being used efficiently and, if not, what is needed to optimise the water resource and to minimise water wastage.
The auditing process
An irrigation system audit should cover:
• How the irrigation system design performs from an engineering viewpoint
• The soils/agronomy component, to ensure that efficient water entry into and storage within the soil
• How well the system is operated and maintained
The audit involves a thorough site inspection to check out the overall performance of the system, covering both design and maintenance elements. This will not only help pinpoint problem areas but, more importantly, will indicate what is needed to improve water use efficiency.
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