Hydraulic models in Turkmenistan

Presented at the 2002 USCID/EWRI conference, Energy, climate, environment and water - issues and opportunities for irrigation and drainage on July 9-12 in San Luis Obispo, California.In 1998 irrigated area of Turkmenistan was 1750 thousand ha and total water intake was 22.8 km3 which was enough to meet total agricultural water requirements. Pursuant to the programs of the President of Turkmenistan, the irrigated area must be brought to 2250 thousand ha by 2010, but the volume of water taken from the Amudarya river must be kept as 22 km3. Thus in the future irrigation water requirements including the necessity of irrigated area extension can be met only under specific conditions. The given situation demands much from the justification and quality of the projects. In this connection, at present, in the course of designing and renovation of major water projects (reservoirs, main canals and drainage systems) of Turkmenistan, hydrological models and engineering calculation schemes are being used. Sources of initial hydrological data and methods of their processing (depending upon the sphere of their utilization, results of hydrological studies and the problems which solution they will be used for) are under consideration in the Report