"Wessex Institute of Technology's Sustainable Irrigation 2012 Conference held at University of South Australia in Adelaide"--Preface.

Irrigation, as the biggest water user in most regions of the world is facing significant challenges in balancing social, economic and environmental needs for water. These proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Sustainable Irrigation and Drainage: Management, Technologies and Policies provide examples of how irrigation and drainage can become more sustainable, while acknowledging that the concept of sustainability is a goal that continues to change as our knowledge of the biophysical realities alters. In that sense moving towards sustainability is an ever evolving journey. A focus is made on the implications for improving sustainability, whether this is drainage, irrigation technologies, economic modelling, governance studies for irrigation management, reuse of water or any other aspect. Topics covered include: Irrigation management; Irrigation modelling; Irrigation systems and planning; Economic incentives; Groundwater issues; Water contamination and remediation; Drainage systems; Drainage modelling; International issues; Water reuse; Climate change effects; Water trade; Economics of irrigation; Socio-economic benefits.

Fresh water is becoming an ever increasingly precious commodity, control of which could lead in the near future to the type of political instability now associated with energy shortages. This book addresses the different aspects of irrigation, including not only the management of water resources and scientific and technical aspects, but also matters related to policy and economics, researchers in academia and industry as well as professional practitioners and policy makers. Bringing together papers from the First International Conference on Sustainable Irrigation Management, Technologies and Policies, the book covers topics such as: Irrigation Controls; Irrigation Modelling; Irrigation Systems and Planning; Irrigation Management.

This book contains most of the papers presented at the Second International Conference on Sustainable Irrigation Management, Technologies and Policies, held at the University of Alicante in 2008. The meeting follows the success of the first Conference which was organised in Bologna in 2006.

The sustainability of irrigation and drainage in the face of many variants and constraints like availability of water as a resource, ecological balance, socio-cultural impacts, and climate change effects lies in the strategies adopted and systems emplaced. It has always remained a challenge for the users of irrigation waters to maintain sustainability in quality and quantity. This book aims ?to explore frontiers of knowledge in coining sustainable strategies and systems direly needed in managing the quality and quantity of water required for crop irrigation, surface and root zone drainage and flood management using available tools of research and development?. Eminent authors and their colleagues possessing varied professional backgrounds and expertise have dealt with these issues concerning the strategies and systems of irrigation and drainage. This book will prove to be beneficial for crop growers, agricultural engineers, water resource managers, academicians and graduate students alike.

The comprehensive and compact presentation in this book is the perfect format for a resource/textbook for undergraduate students in the areas of Agricultural Engineering, Biological Systems Engineering, Bio-Science Engineering, Water Resource Engineering, and Civil & Environmental Engineering. This book will also serve as a reference manual for researchers and extension workers in such diverse fields as agricultural engineering, agronomy, ecology, hydrology, and meteorology.

Fresh water is becoming an increasingly precious commodity. In the near future, control of it could lead to the type of political instability that is now associated with energy shortages. This book addresses the different aspects of irrigation, including not only the management of water resources and scientific and technical aspects, but also matters related to policy and economics. The objective of the Conference Series is to provide a venue for an international presentation and dissemination of papers related to sustainable ways of conducting irrigation. Sustainable irrigation has three key aspects, i.e. i) developing ways of using scarce water resources most efficiently to maximize food production while minimizing the environmental impact of irrigation activities on the affected land and water resources; ii) ensuring that the extraction of water from surface and groundwater sources is set at sustainable levels to maintain healthy aquatic ecosystems to secure a continued supply of quality water for irrigation, recreation and urban/industrial uses; iii) facilitate an equitable distribution of the water available for consumption between competing users, which is essential to maintain sustainable communities. Attracting researchers in academia and industry, as well as professional practitioners and policy makers, the Third International Conference provides a platform for a review of the state of the art from the scientific, technological, political and economic points of view. Papers from the Meeting are published in this volume, and cover the following topics: Irrigation Management; Modelling and Simulation; Sustainable Irrigation - Farmers' Actions, Environmental Benefits and Socio-economic Consequences.

"Irrigation and drainage has made a major contribution to facilitate increasing food production in order to meet the needs of an ever-growing world population. Irrigation, as the biggest water user in most regions of the world, is facing significant challenges in balancing social, economic and environmental needs for water. The water is basic source for all living in the world and it covers two third of the earth, it is the lifeblood of plants and its permanent or temporary shortage can cause serious damage to plants yield and quality. Irrigation has an important place in terms of water usage, its environmental impact and reuse of urban waste water. Irrigation; firstly begin with people becoming sedentary and agricultural practices, it has been made to improve the quality and quantity of crop production. In most countries agriculture represents by far the largest use of water and worldwide, it represents about 70% of total withdrawal and 90% of water consumption. Especially since the 1950s, people living in the cities started to be the owner of a garden, studies conducted in the urban landscape water is needed in these areas with different types of grass and ornamental crops, in order to ensure the sustainability of irrigation, which resulted in entering of irrigation into urban life. The sustainability of irrigation and drainage in the face of many variants and constraints like availability of water as a resource, ecological balance, socio-cultural impacts, and climate change effects lies in the strategies adopted and systems emplaced. Thus, sustainable irrigation and drainage management will be a frontier field in the future. This raises a number of questions; how can we increase the efficiency and productivity of water use under the circumstance of increasing uncertainties of flooding and drought? How can we reduce the nutrients output from agro-field by using irrigation and drainage technique, to reduce the pollution to groundwater and surface water? This volume Irrigation and Drainage Engineering aims to explore frontiers of knowledge in coining sustainable strategies and systems direly needed in managing the quality and quantity of water required for crop irrigation, surface and root zone drainage and flood management using available tools of research and development. The contribute chapters are written by well-known authors possessing various professional backgrounds and proficiency have dealt with these issues concerning the strategies and systems of irrigation and drainage. This book will be of invaluable for crop growers, agricultural engineers, water resource managers, academicians and graduate students alike."