Irrigation
Development
Checklist
INZ Irrigation Specification Checklist | Page 1 of 12
Introduction
Welcome to the Irrigation Development Checklist
This checklist provides a step by step process to ensure the right irrigation system is designed and built on
your property.
When developing irrigation “specification” is a critical task, it involves determining all the requirements of
the system and documenting them as a “design brief”.
Irrigation New Zealand has produced an Irrigation Development book that accompanies and expands
on this checklist. It provides guidelines for farmers to determine the best irrigation solutions for their
farm. The Irrigation Development book contains detailed explanations of all the information needed
to successfully “specify” an irrigation system and prepare a “design brief”. This is then used to develop a
“construction contract” to ensure the irrigation system is built as designed.
The Irrigation Development book and checklist assumes the case for irrigation has been established, water is
available and the decision to develop irrigation has been made.
Section A outlines the core information needed to produce a design brief (with examples) taking into
account, crop, soils, climate, water source as well as land and general information. Careful consideration of
how to collect your data and what data to use is vital.
Section B is where the design brief is determined. This uses the information gathered in Section A to
produce a design brief particular to the needs identified. The design brief will form the basis of the design
outputs and ultimately the contract, including the commissioning plan.
Section C is a template where you can fill out the information particular to your farm.
To complete these sections, it is suggested that the Irrigation Development book is used. This specifies the
process and parameters in more detail. (The information in this booklet shows tables as examples)
Page 2 of 12 | INZ Irrigation Specification Checklist
Section A
Core information
1. General
Purpose of system: Just irrigation? What about frost-fighting, stock-water and domestic water?
Required service period: How many years do you want it to last? What is the future use of the land? What is the
term of the consent? What is the investment period?
System down time: How long can your system be down before it costs you money?
1. General
PURPOSE OF SYSTEM Irrigation and stock water
REQUIRED SERVICE PERIOD 20 years and 1800 hours per annum
SYSTEM DOWN TIME (DAYS) 2 days
Irrigation Operation
per 24 hours 22 hours
2. Land
Location: Where is your property?
Land area: How big is the area? Will this change in the future?
Plans: Planned irrigated area, existing infrastructure, land topography, water source(s), drainage patterns, streams and rivers
and any other relevant information.
Layout: Are there any restrictions or sensitive areas on your property? For example, the topography (land slope, hills,
waterways, wetlands, flood risk), infrastructure or energy source may affect the design.
2. Land
LOCATION Dunsandel, Canterbury
LAND AREA (ha) 50 HA
PLANS Plans attached
LAYOUT Two flat areas dissected by approx 3 metre high terrace with small stream along terrace.
INZ Irrigation Specification Checklist | Page 3 of 12
3. Water source
Supply: What kind of supply is it – river, storage, bore, scheme? How reliable is it throughout the season?
Quality: What could be detrimental to your system? For example algae, bacteria, sand, silt, iron, and calcium carbonate.
Maximum physical abstraction rate: In particular a river will have a range of flows over the season and is likely to be at a
minimum at the height of summer.
Maximum legal abstraction rate: Environmental, cultural, recreational and other users may make the legal rate less than
the above.
Plans Consents and Permits: Does the plan require you to have a consent to take and use the water? Who regulates this
consent – local authority (regional council or unitary authority), iwi, DoC? Before you start your irrigation project you need
to have water secured and importantly understand what your consent allows you to do.
3. water source
SOURCE TYPE (RIVER, BORE, STORAGE AND/OR TOWN SUPPLY) Bore
QUALITY Filtrate for sand
MONTH SEP OCT NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG
MAXIMUM PHYSICAL
ABSTRACTION RATE (L/S) 33 33 33 33 33 33 33 33 33 33 33 33
MAXIMUM LEGAL
ABSTRACTION RATE (L/S) 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30
Reliability (%) 100 100 100 100 100 90 90 100 100 100 100 100
Consent issues Read and understand consent conditions
4. Crop
Type: Crop type dictates water demand and also season length. What crops will be grown in the short and long term?
What is their season length? What rotation are they on? Do you have a crop contract that imposes conditions on the
irrigation type/amount?
Minimum application uniformity: This is a measure of how evenly the irrigation needs to apply water depending on the
crop type. The range of uniformity depends largely on depth and width of a crop’s root structure. Do your crops have shallow
narrow roots or deep, wide roots?
Crop root depth: This defines the amount of water the crop can access in the soil. What is the depth at which your crops
extract water? Does this differ much with your different crops?
Crop factor (Crop coefficients): These are different for each crop and also changes through a particular crops development.
What crop coefficients will you be using?
Maximum allowed depletion (MAD): This is a measure of how much soil moisture depletion may occur before crop stress
happens. It is also known as the ‘stress point’ or ‘critical deficit’. What MAD values will you be working with?
4. Crop
Type Pasture
MONTH SEP OCT NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG
Minimum Application
UNIFORMITY (%) 80 80 80 80 80 80 80 80 80 80 80 80
CROP ROOT DEPTH (Mm) 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300
CROP FACTOR 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0
maximum allowed
DEPLETION MAD (%) 50 50 50 30 30 30 50 50 50 50 50 50
Page 4 of 12 | INZ Irrigation Specification Checklist
5. Climate
Evapotranspiration: Evapotranspiration is the sum of evaporation and plant transpiration from the land surface to
the atmosphere. Do you have a record of daily evapotranspiration values for a number of years? If not, use potential
evapotranspiration adjusted by relevant crop factor.
Rainfall: Do you have a record (preferably >10years) of monthly rainfall? Does your local authority have a
more reliable record?
Wind: Is wind a factor during operation? Do you have a record of the predominant wind direction?
Soil temperature: All crops require optimum soil temperatures to grow. The seasonal soil temperature variations dictate
what crops can be grown and their growing season. Do you have a record of soil temperature on your farm?
5. climate
MONTH SEP OCT NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG
Potential
EVAPOTRANSPIRATION 2.2 2.4 3.5 4.5 4.5 4.5 3.4 2.1 1.3 0.8 1.0 1.6
(MM/DAY)
RAINFALL (MM/ MONTH) 50 63 32 20 10 10 10 56 32 52 50 57
WIND (direction) NW NW NW NW – – – – – – – –
SOIL TEMPERATURE (˚C) 8 10 13 15 17 18 17 16 13 9 8 7
6. Soil
Types: What are the soil types in your property? Is there much variability? Where is the location and area of each?
What is the depth of each?
Total Available Water (TAW): Is the size of the soils water storage from which plants can draw water.
What is the TAW of the different soils on your property?
Infiltration Rate: This is a measure of the rate at which soil is able to absorb water. This rate decreases as the soil becomes
saturated. What infiltration rates do you have for your different soils? How much do they differ?
6. Soil – SOIL PROFILE 1
INFILTRATION RATE (MM/HR) 15
profile DEPTH (mM) AVAILABLE WATER HOLDING CAPACITY (MM/100Mm)
Silt Loam 300 22
Silt Loam with 40% stones 200 12
Stones 600 <5
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Section B
Design brief
The design brief provides the basic design parameters (specification) that enable an irrigation design to be completed.
These are based on the information gathered in Section A. Some of the values come directly and others derived from the
gathered information. This design brief and the parameters it contains should be agreed before any major works start.
These should be given to the irrigation designers and from there they will be able to give you a list of the outputs from
the system they designed. These outputs should be compared to choose the best design for you.
A pasture example is outlined below.
7. Design Brief
INPUT DESCRIPTION VALUE Where from
REQUIRED SERVICE PERIOD (Years) 20 table 1
System DOWN TIME (Days) 2 table 1
MINIMUM Application UNIFORMITY DUlq (%) 80 table 4
MAXIMUM SOIL APPLICATION INTENSITY (mm/hr) 15 table 6
MAXIMUM DAILY APPLICATION DEPTH (mm/day) 4.5 calculation 1 below
MAXIMUM RETURN PERIOD (Days) 4–5 calculation 2 below
MAXIMUM REQUIRED SYSTEM FLOW RATE (l/s) 28 calculation 3 below
MAXIMUM WATER ABSTRACTION RATE (l/s) 30 table 3
VOLUME REQUIRED PER SEASON FOR 90% RELIABILITY (m3) Use Irricalc
[Link]/
375,000
irrigators/
water-allocation/
STORAGE VOLUME REQUIRED (m3) Suggested to engage
0
consultant
Calculation 1 takes PET values from table 5 and adjusts for crop factor values from table 4.
Calculation 2 takes values from table 4, 5 and 6. Max return period = Readily available water/peak crop demand
where RAW = TAW adjusted by crop root depth and MAD.
Example
(22*3) * 30% = 22
22
= 4.8 (or 4-5 days)
4.5
Calculation 3 takes values from table 1, 2 and 5.
Required system flow rate = area * max daily application depth adjusted by the available operation time.
Example
50*4.5*10000
= 28
3600*22
Page 6 of 12 | INZ Irrigation Specification Checklist
Section C: Template
1. General information
PURPOSE OF SYSTEM
REQUIRED SERVICE PERIOD
SYSTEM DOWN TIME (DAYS)
Irrigation Operation
per 24 hours
2. Land information
LOCATION
LAND AREA (ha)
PLANS
LAYOUT
3. water source information
SOURCE TYPE (RIVER, BORE, STORAGE AND/OR TOWN SUPPLY)
QUALITY
MONTH SEP OCT NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG
MAXIMUM PHYSICAL
ABSTRACTION RATE (L/S)
MAXIMUM LEGAL
ABSTRACTION RATE (L/S)
Consent issues
4. Crop information
Type
MONTH SEP OCT NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG
IRRIGATION UNIFORMITY
CROP ROOT DEPTH
(mm)
CROP FACTOR
MAXIMUM ALLOWABLE
DEPLETION (MAD)
5. climate information
MONTH SEP OCT NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG
EVAPOTRANSPIRATION
(MM/DAY)
RAINFALL (MM/ MONTH)
WIND (direction)
SOIL TEMPERATURE (˚C)
INZ Irrigation Specification Checklist | Page 7 of 12
6. Soil information – SOIL PROFILE 1
INFILTRATION RATE (MM/HR)
profile DEPTH (mM) AVAILABLE WATER HOLDING CAPACITY (MM/100M)
7. Design Brief
INPUT DESCRIPTION VALUE
REQUIRED SERVICE PERIOD (Years)
ALLOWABLE DOWN TIME (Days)
MINIMUM UNIFORMITY RATE DUlq (%)
MAXIMUM SOIL APPLICATION INTENSITY (mm/hr)
MAXIMUM DAILY APPLICATION DEPTH (mm/day)
MAXIMUM RETURN PERIOD (Days)
MAXIMUM REQUIRED SYSTEM FLOW RATE (l/s)
MAXIMUM WATER ABSTRACTION RATE (l/s)
VOLUME REQUIRED PER SEASON FOR 90% RELIABILITY (m3)
STORAGE VOLUME REQUIRED (m3)
Page 8 of 12 | INZ Irrigation Specification Checklist
Additional information
Design outputs
This is information that comes out of the design process and describes a number of measurable factors about the proposed
system’s performance. These factors are part of system commissioning and on-going performance monitoring.
The design output information also allows a fair and convenient way to compare different design options.
Design outputs include:
• Economic variables
—— Capital and operating costs
—— Power, labour and maintenance costs
• System duty points
—— System flow rate
—— System pressure at key points
—— Motor and pump efficiencies
—— Maximum and minimum pipeline velocities
• Equipment and materials selected
—— Storage
—— Motors and pumps
—— Filters and water meters
—— Pipes and valves
—— Sprinklers and emitters
—— Control system
Construction checklist
A construction checklist helps ensure the system is built as designed and clarifies responsibilities, construction details
and costs. Main components are:
• General contract conditions
• Construction specifications
• People and capabilities
• Health and Safety
INZ Irrigation Specification Checklist | Page 9 of 12
General contract conditions
Contracting involves a number of specialist tasks and legal conventions. Large projects warrant professional support in
setting and managing contracts. Smaller projects do not have the same risks, but still justify care in contracting. If nothing
else, the parties involved have a record of what they agreed to do.
IrrigationNZ has developed a standard irrigation contract specific to contracting irrigation projects.
In general, some items to check are:
• How is the contract structured? Is it clear and concise?
• What contract standards will apply? i.e. NZS 3910 or something else?
• What payment structure is agreed? i.e. Lump sum or measure and value?
• Which costs are fully covered within the contract price?
• Which costs are not covered, tagged or may vary? e.g. Consenting, power connection, trenching
or anything else?
• What provision is made for retentions? Do they cover practical and final completion,
and maintenance period?
• What insurance cover and/or bonds are in place? Who is responsible for their cost and
will they protect both parties from financial failure?
• Who is the contractor?
• Who is the Principal? Is it you?
Construction specifications
The construction specifications deal with the specific issues needed to successfully complete the works required.
Check that the following items are known and satisfactory:
• Project plan
—— Is it realistic?
—— Are the contractor and sub-contractors sufficiently resourced?
—— What methods and standards will be used?
• Commencement and completion dates and any consequences of failure to meet them
• Contract duration. Has the ‘Critical Path’ been identified to ensure efficient progress?
• Is the scope of work clearly defined?
• Is the schedule of quantities clearly defined?
• Construction methods and standards
—— Storage, intake and wells
—— Trenching
—— Motors
—— Pumps
—— Filters
—— Pipes
—— Automatic and manual valves
—— Emitters and lateral
—— Control system
• Are their methods and standards valid?
• Who will be responsible for practical commissioning and completion and what standards apply?
• Who will be responsible for final commissioning and completion and what standards apply?
Page 10 of 12 | INZ Irrigation Specification Checklist
People and capabilities
Make sure the contractor has people allocated to your project who have the required skills and experience. Ask for
references and undertake background checks of previous projects they have been involved with.
Health and safety
While a contractor is responsible for the health and safety of their staff, the land owner/purchaser also has responsibilities.
Make sure that any on-site hazards are clearly communicated to the contractor and retain written evidence of this.
Among the hazards that may be present are:
• Working at height
• Working in trenches
• Working with electricity
• Working with pressure
• Working in wet, muddy slippery conditions
System commissioning
Commissioning is an important process. It is the quality control ensuring the system is installed and operating correctly.
The commissioning process will determine whether or not all components of the system are installed and operating properly,
in accordance with the system’s specification over the range of on-site conditions expected.
Commissioning is a technical task completed by trained people. It includes:
• System testing
• Procedures for correcting poor performance
• Documentation that needs to be provided
• Producing as-built plans
Operation
Development is only part of the story. To achieve economic, sustainable and optimal irrigation, each of the key components
(specify, design, install, maintain, operate and evaluate) must be correctly completed and revisited. That will ensure on-going
sustainability and continuity over the investment time frame.
Disclaimer and Copyright
The information provided in this publication is intended as a guide and reference resource only and should not be used, relied upon or treated as a
substitute for specific professional advice. While Irrigation New Zealand Limited (including its officers, employees, contractors and agents) (INZ) has
taken all due care in the preparation of the information in this publication, INZ cannot guarantee that every statement is factually accurate.
INZ makes no warranties, guaranties or undertakings as to results that may be obtained from information in this publication. You are solely responsible
for the actions you take in reliance on the content provided in this publication.
INZ shall not be liable for any errors or omissions in the information or for any loss, injury, damages of any type (including and without limitation direct,
indirect, special or consequential damages) or other consequence whatsoever that you or any person might incur as a result of your use of or reliance
upon the information which appears in this publication.
The information contained in this publication may change, be added to, deleted or otherwise updated or amended without notice.
Except where expressly stated, the information in this publication is protected by copyright. You may not copy, reproduce, modify or distribute the
publication or parts thereof in any way, other than a single copy for private use. Permission must be sort from INZ prior to reproduction of any material
contained in this publication.
Any information that is referenced or links that are included in this publication are provided for your assistance and convenience. INZ provides no
warranty or endorsement whatsoever and is not liable or responsible for the content or accuracy of any third party websites or publications.
Each page of this publication must be read in conjunction with this disclaimer and any other disclaimer that forms part of it.
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