Modernization criteria assessment for water resources planning [Elektronische Ressource] : Klamath irrigation project, US / von Beau J. Freeman

Beau Freeman

Informations

• Publié par: universitat_stuttgart
• Publié le: 01 janvier 2008
• Nombre de lectures: 44
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 4 Mo

Extrait

Heft 166 Beau James Freeman



Modernization Criteria Assessment
for Water Resources Planning;
Klamath Irrigation Project, U.S.




Modernization Criteria Assessment for Water Resources
Planning; Klamath Irrigation Project, U.S.





Von der Fakultät Bau- und Umweltingenieurwissenschaften der
Universität Stuttgart zur Erlangung der Würde eines
Doktor-Ingenieurs (Dr.-Ing.) genehmigte Abhandlung



Vorgelegt von
Beau James Freeman
aus San Luis Obispo, California, USA




Hauptberichter: Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Dr.-Ing. András Bárdossy
Mitberichter: Priv.-Doz. Dr.-Ing. Walter Marx
Prof. Dr. oec. Werner Doppler

Tag der mündlichen Prüfung: 10 July 2008












Institut für Wasserbau der Universität Stuttgart
2008





Heft 166 Modernization Criteria
Assessment for Water
Resources Planning; Klamath
Irrigation Project, U.S.


von
Dr.-Ing.
Beau J. Freeman













Eigenverlag des Instituts für Wasserbau der Universität Stuttgart D93 Modernization Criteria Assessment for Water Resources Planning;
Klamath Irrigation Project, U.S.























Titelaufnahme der Deutschen Bibliothek


Freeman, Beau:
Modernization Criteria Assessment for Water Resources Planning; Klamath
Irrigation Project, U.S. / von Beau Freeman. Institut für
Wasserbau, Universität Stuttgart. Stuttgart: Inst. für Wasserbau, 2008

(Mitteilungen / Institut für Wasserbau, Universität Stuttgart: H. 166)
Zugl.: Stuttgart, Univ., Diss., 2008)
ISBN 3-933761-70-0
NE: Institut für Wasserbau <Stuttgart>: Mitteilungen


Gegen Vervielfältigung und Übersetzung bestehen keine Einwände, es wird lediglich
um Quellenangabe gebeten.




Herausgegeben 2008 vom Eigenverlag des Instituts für Wasserbau
Druck: druckcooperative, KarlsruheAbstract
Agricultural irrigation is the largest consumer of diverted surface water and groundwater
resources in the world, with major regions becoming critically water deficit. Agriculture in the
western United States (US) and elsewhere has reached the point where the demands from
irrigators, domestic users, and various commercial interests for allocated quantities and
qualities are beyond acceptable levels for environmental needs in many river basins. Despite
decades of investment in irrigation projects by governments, foreign lending agencies, and
development banks in numerous countries, irrigation performance remains unsatisfactorily low
and in many places progress is being reversed due to water logging, salinization, over-drafting
of aquifers, environmental degradation, and infrastructure deterioration. Maintaining current
irrigation practices will lead to worsening environmental and economic consequences.

To restore healthy ecosystems and sustain irrigated agriculture, irrigation modernization should
be promoted as a key component of basin-level water management to effectively balance
competing water needs. Improvements in the technical and economic efficiency of irrigation
water use through modernization increase the quantity and quality of freshwater available in a
river basin. Significant public and private investments in modernization will be required to
facilitate the precise control and monitoring of reallocated flows at different levels of irrigation
systems, especially on a real-time basis, and thus provide excellent water delivery service to
water districts, end-users, and other commercial and environmental stakeholders. This doctoral
study investigates a specific problem that many irrigation professionals and water resources
planners will face in the future: how to effectively analyze and make an assessment of irrigation
modernization project-alternatives.

Selecting the best modernization strategy to pursue from potential project-alternatives in water
resources planning is a complex decision-making process. Irrigation modernization alternatives
and their impacts involve a variety of diverse stakeholders in the selection of preferred
engineering solutions based on subjectively defined criteria (quantitative and qualitative). As
a consequence, technical feasibility, environmental, social/community, institutional, political,
and economic factors have to be properly assessed as part of water resources planning.

This research introduces a strategic decision analysis methodology for the definition, evaluation,
ranking, and selection of appropriate modernization strategies in an engineering case study of
the Klamath Irrigation Project (89,000 ha). In 2001 a combination of events occurred there
that led to one of the most prominent conflicts over water supplies in the U.S. Due to stricter
flow requirements put in place to protect fish species and a critical drought, irrigation water
was unexpectedly withheld from the majority of farms in the Project, resulting in major
economic losses, calling the basis for environmental restrictions into question, and generating
intense political controversy.

The composite programming approach is applied to develop a project ranking index based on
standardized indicators – effective for analyzing the trade-offs associated with balancing
technical and water conservation considerations with eco-system health, economics, and risk.
This modernization criteria assessment requires defining the management objectives according
to the nature of the internal processes and agro-hydrological features of the system, selection
of alternative engineering solutions, selection of appropriate decision criteria relevant to the
specific water-related problems, and the assignment of desirable and critical threshold values
pertinent to each criterion. Input data consist of hydrologic, agronomic, engineering, economic,
and political/policy information.
Table of Contents
Abstract............................................................................................................................. vi
Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................... xi
Zusammenfassung........................................................................................................... xii
1 Introduction.................................................................................................................1
1.1 Modernization Criteria Assessment Framework for Water Resources Planning.......1
1.2 The Need for Modern Engineering and Public Choices in Water Management........2
1.2.1 Engineering Solutions for Meeting New Water Demands ....................................... 2
1.2.2 Guiding Principles of Modern Design...................................................................... 3
1.3 Motivating Forces for Irrigation Districts to Modernize............................................4
1.3.1 Conflicts over Water Resources: Tradeoffs between Agricultural Irrigation
and Environmental Water Demands 7
1.4 Defining Research Benchmarks and Indicators .........................................................7
1.5 Research Methods......................................................................................................8
1.5.1 Ranking Water Management Alternatives ............................................................... 9
1.6 About this Report .....................................................................................................11
2 Klamath Irrigation Project......................................................................................12
2.1 Description of the Case Study Area – Klamath River Basin ...................................12
2.1.1 Summary of Historical Operations......................................................................... 14
2.1.2 Competing Demands for Water.............................................................................. 16
2.1.2.1 Project-Level Water Management Strategies....................................... 17
2.1.2.2 Technical and Institutional Considerations .......................................... 18
2.1.2.3 U.S. Bureau of Reclamation................................................................. 19
Water Rights..................................................................................................20
2.1.2.4 Operations Planning Process................................................................ 21
NRCS Inflow Forecast for Upper Klamath Lake ..........................................21
Water Year Type ..............................................