USCID fifth international conference

Presented at the fifth international conference on irrigation and drainage, Irrigation and drainage for food, energy and the environment on November 3-6, 2009 in Salt Lake City, Utah.Includes bibliographical references.Subsurface drainage is a critical element in sustaining and protecting the investment in irrigated agriculture. There have been significant developments in the state of the discipline in the last 30 yrs. There has been a steady progression away from the basic elements of the system design and construction to developing management strategies that conserve water and contribute to the remediation of poor quality drainage water. In the past, the ecological impact of drainage was given little consideration but this has changed significantly in recent times. This manuscript will briefly discuss the current state of the art in drainage system design and management and speculate on what the future holds for this critical discipline