Investigating the Impact of Distribution and Delivery Management in Watershortage Conditions on Water Productivity Index Using Hydrodynamic andCrop Production Model

Water resources limitation and population growth that requires increased food production, indicates the necessity of promoting water productivity in irrigation networks. Productivity improvement methods in irrigation networks consists of supply and demand oriented methods. In this research considering limitation of supply oriented practices, the emphasis is on demand oriented methods especially under water shortage condition. For this purpose, water distribution management in irrigation networks (including 4 scenarios) are considered. This research has been done on a secondary eastern canal of Gotvand irrigation network in Khuzestan province. Hydraulic flow in this network is simulated with the ICSS hydrodynamic model. The crop production has been simulated with the AquaCrop model. Depending on the management goal i.e. saving water, food production and improving water productivity, the scenarios can have different priorities. If the main goal is to improve water productivity, the first and fourth scenarios are the most suitable strategy with 13.8% and 12.96% improvement in productivity compared to the current situation.