Irrigation Water Allocation in Canal Command Areas

This paper presents a mathematical model developed for crop water allocations in a canal command area. The model uses processed data on crop areas obtained from satellite imageries in updating allocation decisions in real time. Water allocations to crops are based on detailed soil moisture balance, competition among crops for available water, crop response to water allocation, rainfall in the command area and amount of available water through canal discharge in an intraseason time period. The model application is demonstrated with the case study of the command area of Distributary No. 36 of the Tunga Bhadra project. Processed data on crop areas for the case study has been obtained from earlier studies carried out by Regional Remote Sensing Service Center (RRSSC), Bangalore