Re-engineering irrigation management and system operations

The paper examines how a re-engineering approach can benefit irrigation management and canal operations and, hence, how the current, acute challenges to water management (e.g. competition, multiple users and protection of the environment) can be addressed. By comparing the irrigation and the industrial sectors, a re-engineering process includes re-thinking all the processes involved in irrigation management. Commonly held assumptions are questioned, re-validated or rejected depending on local conditions. As an example, the implicit assumption of homogeneity (service-physical characteristics-…) should be screened and rejected unless proved to be true.