An Extension education program to help water districts conserve water and operate more efficiently, Gabriele Bonaiti, Extension Program Specialist – Water District Program, Texas AgriLife Extension
- 1. An Extension education program to help water districts conserve water and operate more efficiently: Introduction Texas Alliance of Groundwater Districts Quarterly Meeting Austin, Texas February 26, 2014
- 2. Gabriele Bonaiti, PhD Extension Program Specialist Irrigation District Engineering and Assistance Program, IDEA (2009-2012) Water District Program (2013) Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering (BAEN) College Station, Texas
- 3. Outline 1) BAEN Extension education priorities 2) Examples of past projects with AgriLife 3) Water District Program definition and initial steps
- 4. 1) BAEN priority on GCD
- 5. 2) Examples of past projects (IDEA) I collaborated with: ◉ irrigation districts, Municipal utility districts, Water control and improvement districts (RGBI) ◉ river authorities (LCRA) ◉ Iraqi Ministry of Agriculture, and Ministry of Water Resources (USAID) I conducted mostly demonstration projects
- 6. Geographic Information System (GIS) support ◉ ◉ ◉ ◉ Training Mapping GIS structure recommendations Analysis
- 8. Rating Irrigation Irrigation area (acres) ◉ Head and drainage problems ◉ Structures and canals condition and seepage ◉ Irrigation scheduling Spill losses 1,650 Rainfall 750 1,100 500 550 250 0 0 Spill losses (acft), rainfall (in*100) Rapid Intervention Program (USAID):
- 11. Database management • Current flows are shown (updated every 15 minutes) • Critical water levels are highlighted in yellow and red
- 12. Calculated flow (cfs) Calibration for flow 70 50 30 10 Cq = 0.70 y = 1.0197x - 0.513 R² = 0.9943 -10 -10 10 30 50 Measured flow (cfs) 70
- 13. Modeling crop water requirements USDA-ARS laboratory, Bushland, TX
- 15. 3) Water District Program Definition ◉ Extension education program to help Water Districts conserve water and operate more efficiently ◉ Water Districts: irrigation districts, groundwater districts, river authorities, Municipal utility districts (MUDs), Water control and improvement districts (WCIDs), and Special utility districts (SUDs) ◉ Work with: County Extension Agents and Water District personnel ◉ Objective: define needs and opportunities, develop cooperative projects, offer training and technical assistance ◉ Field of expertise: management of canal systems, irrigation scheduling, hydrological and crop growth modeling, flow metering and monitoring, water quality improvement, Geographic Information System (GIS) and data management, web-based information technologies, water rights
- 17. Initial steps ◉ GIS training (basic, advanced)
- 18. ◉ WebGIS demonstration projects ◉ ◉ http://www.arcgis.com/home/webmap/viewer.html?webmap=90a6 fc461abd48aba3f1a66f33357f40 Test map (Pineywoods GCD)
- 19. For more information: Irrigation District Engineering and Assistance Program (IDEA) website: http://idea.tamu.edu Water District Program http://baen.tamu.edu/faculty/gabriele-bonaiti/ email: gbonaiti@ag.tamu.edu