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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Maricopa, Arizona » U.S. Arid Land Agricultural Research Center » Water Management and Conservation Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #233567
Title: DOWNSTREAM-WATER-LEVEL CONTROL TEST RESULTS ON THE WM LATERAL CANAL

Author
item Clemmens, Albert
item Strand, Robert

Submitted to: Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/4/2009
Publication Date: 7/20/2010
Citation: Clemmens, A.J. and Strand, R.J. (2010) Downstream-Water-Level Control Test Results on the WM Lateral Canal. Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering 136(7) 460-469

Interpretive Summary: Operation of canals is often complicated by difficulty in supplying the correct amount of water to the canal. This is caused by a variety of factors, including inaccurate flow measurement. Control of downstream water levels provides a simple method to correct these errors and provide the correct flow rate to canals and users. In this paper, downstream water level control was tested on the WM canal at the Maricopa Stanfield Irrigation and Drainage District, Stanfield, AZ, while actually delivering water to users. These results will be of use to irrigation and large water districts, the Bureau of Reclamation, and consultants.

Technical Abstract: On steep canals, distant downstream water-level control can be challenging. SacMan (Software for Automated Canal Management) was developed, in part, to test various distant downstream water level controllers. It was implemented on the WM canal of the Maricopa Stanfield Irrigation and Drainage District, Stanfield, AZ, to compare the performance of various controllers. Optimization was used to determine the coefficients for a variety of controllers (Clemmens and Schuurmans 2004). These controllers vary in their complexity from a series of simple, single-input-single-output (SISO), proportional integral (PI) controllers to a fully centralized, multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO), optimal controller. The controller design also varies regarding which pools are under downstream, or upstream, control and according to the conditions (e.g. flow rate) assumed for controller design. These controllers were tested under actual operating conditions and with unscheduled disturbances. The results of these tests are presented in this paper.