In the context of climate change, it is important to minimize the changes that are introduced in the territory adjacent to the object of human economic activity. In some cases, this can be done with the help of drainage-screened modules – an anti-filtration screen that redistributes the zone of influence of the drain placed near it. As a result, the drain regulates to a greater extent the zone of human economic activity (drainage system, tailing dump, populated area, etc.) and to a lesser extent lowers the level of groundwater in the adjacent territory. The use of drainage-screened modules in tailing farms, for the organized storage of mineral waste of enterprises makes it possible to increase the filtration stability of dike, ensuringthe uniform operation of the tailing dams, as well as reliable removal of intercepted groundwater. This is achieved because in the tailing farm the dikes are intensified by drainage-screened modules. Water, filtered through the body of the dike and under it, is intercepted by a drain. A part of the filtration flow, which is not intercepted by the drain, is stopped by the anti-filtration screen.
The European Water Framework Directive can have enormous consequences for agricul-ture in the Netherlands. In parts of the country agriculture should be taken out of production because the nutrient loads to the surface water system are far too high. This doom scenario is of course unde-sired and a number of source-specific and effect-specific measures are necessary. The fate of nutri-ents in the soil is strongly interrelated with its hydrology. Directly, because nutrients are transported by water and the distribution of the residence time of drainage water is a good measure for the time behaviour of the nutrient loads to the surface water system. Longer residence time in the soil means more of nutrients applied by farmers but also a longer recovery period, after applying source-specific measures. In this paper three promising effect-specific hydrological measures are described buffer strips, retention strips, and controlled drainage.
Wetlands play a significant role in agricultural landscape. They are the areas of exception-ally great natural values able to regulate water cycling in river catchments. In many cases they are the basic food source for bred animals.
Large areas of wetlands (c. 4 million ha) have been drained for agricultural purposes in Poland. Nevertheless, there are still numerous natural (or close to natural) wetlands, part of which is protected in nature reserves or national parks.
Having in mind the transformation of agriculture and the need of protecting water resources and natural environment, it is necessary to regulate the principles of utilisation and management of re-claimed wetlands. Water management should be adjusted to the type of an area and to environmental requirements. Regardless of the type and intensity of agricultural use of wetlands one has to aim at limiting rapid outflow of spring thaw and rainfall waters which means the reconstruction and increas-ing of natural retention capacity of the river catchment. It is necessary to provide an appropriate num-ber of water lifting facilities and their proper exploitation in land reclamation objects.
It is as well necessary to create appropriate organizational, legal and financial conditions stimu-lating actions to improve water balance and wetland protection.
The study presents the critical evaluation of existing drainage systems from legal, eco-nomical, environmental and technical viewpoints. Nearly 80% of agricultural land in Lithuania drained by underground drainage systems covers around 3 million hectares. The prevailing large scale drainage systems with a complex of engineering structures such as conducting ditches, drains and collectors, local roads, bridges or farm road-crossings, dikes, dams, water reservoirs, pumping stations for irrigation and for drainage need today an efficient management solution in a new economic situation. The detailed analysis of legal and economic instruments adopted in transferring the management responsibilities of drainage systems to users has been carried out. The study resulted in a number of practical contributions towards the amendments in the Law on Land Reclamation in Lithuania and the establishment of a system of indicators that would allow rationalisation of subsidy allocations for the maintenance and improvement of the drainage systems. These subsidies from the state budget make at the moment the largest share among the investment sources. The financial and in kind contribution of drainage users is permanently increasing as are the allocations of the structural funds for public projects. The EU pre-accession programme SAPARD started in 2000 has supported some investments in rural areas. Unfortunately, it did not support the drainage infrastructure properly. A critical review of previous measures allowed suggesting new actions within the framework of the actual support from EU structural funds.
CropSyst model can be used as irrigation water management tool to increase wheat productivity with poor quality water. The objective of this study was to calibrate CropSyst model for wheat irrigated with fresh and agricultural drainage water. To do so, three field experiments were conducted during three successive seasons in Nubaria Agricultural Research Station, Egypt representing the newly reclaimed calcareous soils. In the first season the treatments were 100% crop evapotranspiration (ETc) of fresh water (FW) and 100% ETc of agricultural drainage water (DW), while in the second and the third seasons, the treatments were 100% ETc of FW, 100% ETc of DW, 120% ETc of DW and 130% ETc of DW. From these results one can concluded that deducting 5% of the applied water to all treatments reduced yield by 3, 5 and 7% in the first, second and third growing season, respectively as a result of heat stress existed in the 2nd and 3rd seasons during reproductive phase. Furthermore, deducting 5% of the applied water from all treatments in the vegetative phase only resulted in lower yield losses. Thus, using CropSyst model could guide us to when we could reduce the applied irrigation water to wheat to avoid high yield losses.
Polish water resources depend on precipitations, which are variable in time and space. In dry years the water balance is negative in central parts of Poland but sudden thaws and downfalls may result in periodical water excess and dangerous floods almost in the entire country. The retention capacity of artificial reservoirs in Poland permits to store only 6% of the average annual runoff, which is commonly considered insufficient. Another method to increase retention is soil water con-trol. About fifty percent of soils in Poland consist of light and very light sandy soils with low water capacity. Loams and organogenic soils cover approximately 25% and 8.5% area of the country, re-spectively. Almost half of agricultural lands (48%) have relatively good water conditions, but the rest requires soil water control measures. An increase of the soil water content could be achieved by changes of soil properties, water table control and soil water management. Modernization and recon-struction of drainage and irrigation systems, which were built mainly in the period 1960–1980, is needed.
The abundance of water has certainly been a very important resource for the development of the Po Valley and has necessitated, more than once, interventions of regulation and drainage that have contributed strongly to imprint a particular conformation on the land. Already in Roman times there were numerous projects of canalisation and intense and diligent commitment to the maintenance of the canals, used for navigation, for irrigation and for the working of the mills. The need to control the excessive amount of water present was the beginning of the exploitation of this great font of richness that was constantly maintained in subsequent eras. In the early Middle Ages, despite the conditions of political instability and great economic and social difficulty, the function of the canals continued to be of great importance, also because the paths of river communication often substituted land roads, then left abandoned. After the 11th century A.D. the resumption of agricultural activity was conducive to the intense task of land reclamation of the Lombardian countryside and of commitment by the cities to amplify their waterways with the construction of new canals and the improvement of those already existing. The example given by Milan, a city lacking a natural river, that equipped itself with a dense network of canal, used in various ambits of the city life (defence, hygiene, agriculture, transport, milling systems) and for connections with the surrounding territory, can be considered as emblematic. In the surrounding countryside, the activity of the Cistercian monks of Chiaravalle represents one of the situations more indicative of how land reclamation and waterways contributed fundamentally to the organisation of the territory over the span of the ages.
Flooding in the northern part of The Netherlands has caused serious economic threats to densely populated areas. Therefore a project has been carried out in a pilot area to assess the retention of water in two river basins as a way to reduce flooding. The physically-based groundwater and sur-face water model SIMGRO was used to model the hydrology of the basins. The model was calibrated using discharges and groundwater levels. Scenarios of measures to assess the possibility of retaining water in the basin were then defined and tested. The first measure was the retention of higher dis-charges using culverts or gates in the upstream part of the basin. The second measure was to make the streams shallower and thereby, increase flood plain storage. The last measure was flood water storage in a designated area in the downstream part of one basin. The analysis indicates that holding water in the upstream parts of the basins proved to be feasible and can result in significant reductions of peak flows.
Flood risk management are considerably influenced by several factors, such as all sources of flooding, social circum-stances, policy and even the potential for local economic growth. To encourage government, business, community and oth-er parties to continue investing in flood risk management projects, it is necessary to give understanding that the projects can also provide economic benefits through systematic predictions and assessments of costs, benefits and social values, espe-cially on flood-affected communities. This study aims: (1) to develop knowledge and understanding on small-scale flood risk management project in Malang City, Indonesia, and; (2) to assess the economic efficiency of the project investment considering all benefits, both monetary and non-monetary. The research method is a mixed method combining quantitative questionnaires (N = 53 from 162 families) with qualitative in-depth interviews (N = 10) and field observations. The runoff discharge and the inundation depth were calculated using hydrology and hydraulic analysis, while the economic efficiency was analysed using cost benefit analysis (CBA). The results show that the community-based flood risk management system can reduce the flood risk up to 30% compared to before the implementation of that system. This system also provides direct financial benefits through the use of drainage channels for fish and vegetables farming. It causes the increase of the net so-cial benefit about 70–90% and the net present value (NPV) greater than zero (NPV > 0). Therefore, the project investment is recommended to be proceeded.