Name: ADIL NASEER KHAWAJA

ROLL No: 02

Paper: Resources Conservation Engineering

Course Code: ID-708

Answer No 3: Drainage System
To protect crops, a subsurface drainage system must be able to remove excess water from the
upper portion of the active root zone 24 to 48 hours after a heavy rain. The drainage system
capacity selected, should provide the desired amount of water removal per day, commonly
referred to as the "drainage coefficient."

In this problem, following is the data:

Total Area of the farm: 2000 ha

Area of the farm, which needs drainage (A): 60 ha = 148 Acres (since one hectare = 2.471 Acres)

Drainage Coefficient for the system (Dc): 12.5 mm/d = 0.49 inches per day

To estimate the required flow capacity (Q), multiply the area to be drained by the desired
drainage coefficient (dc) and divide by the conversion factor (23.8).
A x Dc
Q(cfs) = 23.8
cubic feet per second

Where

A = area (acres)

Dc = inches per day

148 x 0.49
Q(cfs) = cubic feet per second = 3.047 f3/s
23.8 ,

Assumptions:

This is a very rough top-level calculation with a lot of assumptions as stated below:

Field topography is uniformly sloped and there are no depressions or crests in the field.

Soil composition is uniform and porosity and permeability do not vary significantly.

Field is clean and free of weeds, trash, and rodents.

Drainage is oriented along the field's contours as much as possible.

Drainage system has a uniform drain depth, in line with topography and system layout.

Concrete drain pipe design and Tile Drainage have been manually done on the attached sheets.

The concrete drain uses Manning Equation.

The tile drainage uses the following diagrams:

Ans 4:
Indus Basin:
The Indus Basin of Pakistan contains the largest contiguous irrigation system in the world. The
irrigation system was developed over a period of 6070 years to the middle of the 20th century.
The length of the canals, main canal branches, and distributaries is about 57,000km. The
system has about 90,000 outlets for the irrigation of service areas. The length of the farm
channels and watercourses is about 1.6 million km. Irrigated agriculture in Pakistan is mainly
conned to the Indus plains. Without assured irrigation supplies, these arid and semiarid areas
could not support any agriculture, as the evapotranspiration(ET)demand is high and rainfall is
either meager or unreliable.

Indus Basin Problems:

The biggest problem in the Indus basin is waterlogging and salinity. Waterlogging and salinity
have plagued irrigated agriculture in the Indus Basin for the past 3040 years.

Approximately 6 million ha (3540%of total irrigated area) experience these twin problems. As a
result, the production potential of the Indus Basin has been reduced by 25%.

A more concerted effort that includes a greater focus on saline agriculture, capacity building of
farmers, and promotion of local interventions to improve self-reliance is necessary for the
management of salinity in the Indus Basin. A sustainable solution would also require
coordination among different provinces and strengthening of federal and provincial government
agencies.

Waterlogging and Salinity:

Waterlogging and salinity in the Indus Basin still remain key bottlenecks to raising land and
water productivity to optimal levels. The secondary salinization associated with shallow
groundwater tables and use of poor quality groundwater for irrigation has further compounded
the salinity problems. Salt affected soils have become an important ecological problem in the
Indus Basin an estimated 6 million ha are already aficted, about half of which are located in
irrigated areas. Out of which about 2.7 million ha lie in the Punjab province, which produces
more than 90% of the countrys food. The problems of waterlogging and salinity are not limited
to the agricultural sector, they worsen living standards in affected areas, create health problems
for humans and animals, and force populations to migrate.

The irrigated agriculture sector of Pakistan is encountering problems of waterlogging and

salinity, which deprive farmers of productive resources and threaten their livelihoods.

Solution/Measures:

Pakistan has understood the signicance of these issues since the countrys creation. Research
efforts followed a number of waterlogging and salinity control projects, which mainly consisted of
engineering work to install tube wells and surface and subsurface drains. For reclamation, the
government promoted use of gypsum and other physical methods such as acids and the
addition of organic matter.

Saline Soil Issue:

Additionally, a wide range of research has been done on saline agriculture through the protable
and integrated use of genetic resources including plants, animals, sh, and insects; and
improved agricultural practices. Therefore, there is a need to educate farmers and allocate more
resources for the reclamation of saline and alkaline soils. For the success of saline agriculture in
Pakistan, selection of the most salt-tolerant crop varieties and the use of improved planting
techniques and fertilizers are important factors to be considered. A large number of varieties of
different crops have been developed for Pakistani conditions. However, still there is a scope to
do more work on this issue.

Specific Grasses which help:

The growth of perennial forage grasses has been quite successful in Pakistan. Rhodes grass
(Chloris gayana), tall wheatgrass (Elytrigia elongate) and Puccinellia (Puccinellia ciliate) are the
most popular examples. The incorporation of salt-tolerant trees and salt-bushes into agricultural
systems of salt-affected lands has the potential to increase crop and animal production and
decrease land degradation. Such land improvements combined with improved agricultural
practices will ensure that the current unsustainable trends in agriculture are reversed.

Over the last 40 years, the Government of Pakistan has adopted engineering, reclamation, and
biological measures to address these problems. The engineering solution to the above problem
is large scale Salinity Control and Reclamation Projects (SCARPs) and two big disposal projects
were also initiated to solve the drainage disposal problems.

Use of Chemicals:

To address the saline soil problem, some of the measures tested include leaching of salts by
excess irrigation, use of chemicals (such as gypsum and acids), and addition of organic matter
and biological measures (such as salt-tolerant plants, grasses, and shrubs).

The success of these initiatives has been limited due to number of reasons and 3540% of
irrigated land still suffers from high water tables and moderate to severe salinity.

Those reasons can be enumerated as follows:

a) Lack of coordination among federal and provincial governments, research institutes, and
national and international organizations;
b) Conventional farming and irrigation methods used by farmers;
c) Limited attention to reclamation and saline agricultural approaches; and
d) Lack of resources are some of the reasons for the low success rate.
Soil and Water Conservation Policies and Programs in Pakistan:
Objectives:

The Directorate of Soil Conservation is engaged to tackle the problem of soil erosion for the last
four decades and has the jurisdiction in the rainfed areas of Punjab extending from the Districts
of Narowal to Districts of D.G.Khan and Rajanpur.

The main objectives of Soil Conservation Directorate are as under:

To contain soil erosion process in the cultivable areas and the adjoining un-cultivated
lands and to save these areas from further degradation through adoption of sustainable
soil conservation program on catchment/ sub-catchment basis.
To make maximum use of run-off water by conserving it into the field by various moisture
conservation measures.
To bring more area under cultivation through reclamation and gully control techniques.
Exploitation of water resources through various means of providing assured water
supply for irrigation purposes. (mini Dams and Ponds).

Activities:

To achieve the objectives, the following Soil and Water Conservation activities are carried out.

Treatment of cultivated land:

The cultivated arable land is the most valuable asset in the catchment areas. These lands are
situated at the foot of the hills and are largely sloping. They however have been damaged very
severely by sheet and gully erosion. Their treatment consists in the construction of new
terraces, improvement of the existing terraces strengthening of embankments, construction of
water disposal outlets, chiseling and deep ploughing, introduction of cover crops, contour
ploughing, conservation oriented tillage and planting practices, and introduction of high yielding
varieties of crops. Detailed designs are prepared after studying the condition of each individual
field in each catchment. The machinery and equipment needed for the above listed operations
are supplied by the Government to the farmers at subsidized rates.

Treatment of eroded gullied land:

The gullies are situated at the lower end of watershed and they conduct the bulk of the rain
water coming from above. This is a continuous process and keeps the gullies cating back into
the arable lands. The eating back process is so fast that some of the lands which were shown
as cultivated fields during the settlement of 1905 did not exist at all during the settlement carried
out in 1955. It is, therefore, imperative that the growth of gullies should be arrested as soon as
possible. This is done by diverting the water from the water sheds and plugging the gullies. The
gully plugging serves another may useful purpose of reclaiming valuable agricultural lands in the
beds of gullies. These operations being expensive are carried out after detailed survey. Proper
designs are prepared for the construction of check dams and spillways etc.
Range improvement, afforestation and check dams:

The lands situated at higher elevations, in the hills and mountains and those having shallow soil
or having badly cut up topography are suitable only for raising trees, shrubs and grasses for
vegetation. Such lands are generally the communal lands, are overgrazed and denuded. These
lands in fact are the source of excessive run off eroding lands, causing gullies, washing away
embankments and structures and silting up water works finally resulting in serious soil
destruction. To avert this catastrophe, such lands are planted with trees, grasses bushes etc
and check dams are also provided to retard the run off and arrest the sediment load depending
upon the nature of soil. The economical results from such lands accrue after rather long periods
and the works being of protective nature. These areas after necessary treatment are protected
and used for grazing.

Improvement/Development of Ponds:

The collection of water into ponds is also an improvement measure in reducing run off intensity.
The farmers are encouraged to set up small storages for the dual purpose of drinking water for
livestock and local irrigation. The ponds and storage tanks are designed after proper survey and
investigation.

Stream bank training:

The hill torrents cause considerable damage through stream bank erosion particularly when
they enter the arable lands or the plains. Apart from eroding the valuable agricultural lands, they
also spread large quantities of sterile sand and debris on the adjoining agricultural fields. The
stream bank erosion is controlled through the construction of water diversion spurs/walls and
planting trees grasses along the banks where-ever necessary.

Failures/Reasons why are above policies are not giving good results:

De-forestation: In spite of the repeated awareness campaigns the cutting the

forests for selling the wood and for heating purpose is not eradicated. Part of the
reason is that since major percentage of the countrys population lives below
poverty line and therefore they consider it their due right of cutting and utilizing
natural resources like forests without considering the consequences.
Excessive Mono-cropping: It is the phenomena in which a single type of crop is
grown again and again sometimes because of personal preferences and
sometimes because of market conditions, which results in leaching out of specific
constituents from the soil and resulting soil increasingly becomes less and less
fertile resulting in becoming barren.
Unawareness of Land Management Practices: Pakistani farmer or an average
land-holder in Pakistan, who has to earn living for his family does not even
understand the meaning of soil conservation and fails to realize the consequence
of his agricultural practices to the soil, and when some unexpected result
happens, the farmer accepts this to be natural consequence.
 Overgrazing: Cattle farming is the side-business and the security for the farmer
and he normally runs the agriculture and cattle business in parallel because in
lighter season of no agricultural products, his sole dependency is on cattle, and
the cattle require a sustainable supply of fodder (greens). That supply comes
from sometimes the production from his own land and sometimes from any
meadows close-by and he normally does not even consider taking permission
from any authority while consuming the greens, which results in negative effects
on the soil.

Measures to Conserve Soil/Soil Conservation Methods:

Some of the methods that must be adopted for conserving soil are as follows:

Afforestation
Checking Overgrazing
Constructing Dams
Changing Agricultural Practices

Soil conservation includes all those measures which help in protecting the soil from erosion and
exhaustion. Soil erosion has been continuing over, such a large part of Pakistan for such a long
time that it has assumed alarming proportions.

Soil is our most precious asset and no other gift of nature is so essential to human life as soil.
Productive soil alone ensures prosperous agriculture, industrial development, economic
betterment and a higher standard of living.

It has been estimated that a large part of our arable land needs conservation measures. There
is, therefore, an urgent need to conserve soil for the sake of prosperity of our masses.
Unfortunately, it has not attracted the attention that it deserves. Following methods are normally
adopted for conserving soil:

1. Afforestation:

The best way to conserve soil is to increase area under forests. Indiscriminate felling of trees
should be stopped and efforts should be made to plant trees in new areas. A minimum area of
forest land for the whole country that is considered healthy for soil and water conservation is
between 20 to 25 per cent.
2. Checking Overgrazing:

Overgrazing of forests and grass lands by animals, especially by goats and sheep, should be
properly checked. Separate grazing grounds should be earmarked and fodder crops should be
grown in larger quantities. Animals freely move about in the fields for grazing and spoil the soil
by their hoofs which leads to soil erosion which should be avoided.

3. Constructing Dams:

Much of the soil erosion by river floods can be avoided by constructing dams across the rivers.
This checks the speed of water and saves soil from erosion.

4. Changing Agricultural Practices:

We can save lot of our valuable soil by bringing about certain changes in our agricultural
practices. Some of the outstanding changes suggested in this context are as under:

(i) Crop Rotation:

In many parts of Pakistan, a particular crop is sown in the same field year after year.
This practice takes away certain elements from the soil, making it infertile and exhausted
rendering it unsuitable for that crop. Rotation of crops is the system in which a different
crop is cultivated on a piece of land each year.

This helps to conserve soil fertility as different crops make different demands on the soil.
For example, potatoes require much potash but wheat requires nitrate. Thus, it is best to
alternate crops in the field. Legumes such as peas, beans, clover, vetch and many other
plants, add nitrates to the soil by converting free nitrogen in the air into nitrogenous
nodules on their roots.

Thus, if they are included in the crop rotation nitrogenous fertilizers can be dispensed
with. By rotating different types of crops in successive years, soil fertility can be naturally
maintained. For example, wheat may be cultivated in the first year, barley in the second
and legumes in the third.
The cycle may then be repeated. Further, there are some crops such as maize, cotton,
tobacco and potato which can be classed as erosion inducing, whilst some other crops
such as grass, forage crops and many legumes are erosion resisting. Small grain crops
like wheat, barley, oats and rice are between these two extremes.

(ii) Strip Cropping:

Crops may be cultivated in alternate strips, parallel to one another. Some strips may be
allowed to lie fallow while in others different crops may be sown e.g., grains, legumes,
small tree crops, grass etc. Various crops ripen at different times of the year and are
harvested at intervals. This ensures that at no time of the year the entire area is left bare
or exposed. The tall growing crops act as wind breaks and the strips which are often
parallel to the contours help in increasing water absorption by the soil by slowing down
run off.

(iii) Use of Early Maturing Varieties:

Early maturing varieties of crops take less time to mature and thus put lesser pressure
on the soil. In this way it can help in reducing the soil erosion.

(iv) Contour Ploughing:

If ploughing in done at right angles to the hill slope, following the natural contours of the
hill, the ridges and furrows break the flow of water down the hill This prevents excessive
soil loss as gullies are less likely to develop and also reduce run-off so that plants
receive more water. Thus, by growing crops in contour pattern, plants can absorb much
of the rain water and erosion is minimized. When viewed from above, the field looks like
a contour map.

(vi) Terracing and Contour Bunding:

Terracing and contour bunding across the hill slopes is a very effective and one of the
oldest methods of soil conservation. Hill slope is cut into a number of terraces having
horizontal top and steep slopes on the back and front. Contour bunding involves the
construction of banks along and Contour Ploughing the contours.

Terracing and contour bunding which divides the hill slope into numerous small slopes,
checks the flow of water, promotes absorption of water by soil and saves soil from
erosion. Retaining walls of terraces control the flow of water and help in reducing soil
erosion. Sometimes tree crops such as rubber are also planted to combat soil erosion.

But there is a limit to which bunding is an effective measure of soil conservation. When
the slope is steeper than 8 per cent or 1 in 12, bunding becomes expensive and less
effective. Nothing over 20 per cent or 1 in 5 should be terraced. Fields of a slope steeper
than 15 per cent or 1 in 6 should be withdrawn from ploughing as they are not usually
worth the labor of making benches very close together.

(vii) Checking Shifting Cultivation:

Checking and reducing shifting cultivation by persuading the tribal people to switch over
to settled agriculture is a very effective method of soil conservation. This can be done by
making arrangements for their resettlement which involves the provision of residential
accommodation, agricultural implements, seeds, manures, cattle and reclaimed land.

(viii) Ploughing the Land in Right Direction:

Ploughing the land in a direction perpendicular to wind direction also also reduces wind
velocity and protects the top soil from erosion.
Scientific and technological trends:

In reducing water use and water losses, on-site approaches to conservation include retention of
rainfall by decreasing runoff and increasing infiltration under rainfed culture, and reducing
irrigation water applications under irrigated culture. Historical approaches to conserving water
in irrigation practices include reducing losses during conveyance of water from the source to
irrigated area, such as canal leakage and evaporation, and pipe leakage. More recent
technologies like micro-irrigation systems have been developed.

In the US, a recent innovation under paddy rice culture is the multiple-inlet irrigation. Irrigation-
induced erosion has been fairly studied for furrow irrigation, and one method to reduce this is
through the injection of polyacrylamide (PAM) in the irrigation water. PAM has been proven to
also improve infiltration rates for soils, and therefore reduce nutrient or other soluble chemical
loss. Recently, new information has been gathered regarding the action and efficacy of buffers
and other conservation practices to prevent nutrient removals. An emerging concept in soil and
water conservation is the "precision agriculture approach to conservation" or "precision
conservation".

Two approaches were described namely: the quantitative approach that assesses the needs for
spatial conservation measures, and the consensus based approach that evaluates spatial
profitability, water, and soil quality for a research field.

Some critical points to consider in developing soil and water conservation technologies include:
economic productivity being an important factor in conservation; that spatial variation is a key to
targeting vulnerable areas at all scales; and that complex problems across landscapes, across
farming enterprises, and across conflicting objectives require integrated, multidisciplinary team
of expertise.

Innovative technologies for soil and water conservation management:

Soil conservation management:

Increasing land pressure to improve the socioeconomic standard of the people,

decreasing availability of arable land, and government support to development of
peatland have been encouraged in some countries. Other soil conservation studies in
Asia include: tree crops for steep land conservation; soil erosion measurement and
control techniques and identification of controllable and non-controllable factors;
vegetation engineering methods for erosion control and slope stabilization such as
staking, spray seeding with net placement, cave vegetation, and artificial scattering
seeding.

Water conservation management:

Effective water management for agriculture basically refers to the suitability of various
irrigation methods based on such factors as natural conditions, type of crop, type of
technologies available, previous experiences in irrigation, labor inputs, costs and benefit
estimates, among many others.
In many countries, addressing the problems brought about by water pollution sources is also a
major concern. Agricultural production, which is divided generally into crop production and
animal production, has accelerated soil and water pollution because of intensive use of fertilizer
and agricultural chemicals for higher productivity. To address this problem, the pollution
contribution of livestock and crop production areas must be calculated, and environment-friendly
practices must be assessed and adopted.

Practical:
Problem Data:
Grassed Waterway: Bermuda Grass

Discharge: 6.5 m3/sec

Slope: 6.5%

Soil: Easily Erodible Soil

Vegetation Height: 0.65 ft. or 1 ft.

Trapezoidal Channel: 4:1 side slope

Please refer attached hand written for numerical

This problem uses the following tables, graphs and nomography:

Table 7.3: Classification of vegetal cover according to retardance

Fig 7.5: Nomograph of the manning equation for vegetated channels of retardance class B

Fig 7.8: Dimensions of trapezoidal cross sections with 4:1 side slopes