Flatness-based control of an irrigation canal using SCADA

With a population of more than six billion people, food production from agriculture must be raised to meet increasing demand. While irrigated agriculture provides 40% of the total food production, it represents 80% of the freshwater consumption worldwide. In summer and drought conditions, efficient management of scarce water resources becomes crucial. The majority of irrigation canals are managed manually, however, with large water losses leading to low water efficiency. The present article focuses on the development of algorithms that could contribute to more efficient management of irrigation canals that convey water from a source, generally a dam or reservoir located upstream, to water users. We also describe the implementation of an algorithm for real-time irrigation operations using a supervision, control, and data acquisition (SCADA) system with automatic centralized controller.