There should be plenty of water for everyone..., however three controlling factors: very unequal distribution, rapidly rising demand and increasing pollution around urban and industrial areas means that some areas of the planet are already using water at a greater rate than it is being replenished. This includes parts of Western Australia, and parts of NSW and Victoria. Water management will become increasingly important to try and cater for the increasing demand for usable water.

The aim of irrigation management is to reuse water as much as possible, to collect and store as much water as possible, and to ensure that what water you do use is used in an efficient manner. This course builds on Irrigation BAG213. It teaches you to manage the design and operation of large scale irrigation systems.

Suggested Prior Learning: Irrigation (Agriculture) BAG213 or equivalent (BHT210 or BHT304)

There are 8 lessons in this course:

1. Water management
2. Irrigation scheduling
3. Drainage
4. Irrigation controllers
5. Irrigation maintenance
6. Fertigation
7. Design evaluation
8. Irrigation design

Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school's tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.

• Devise ways to optimise water efficiency (ie. minimise wastage), during irrigation of plants.
• Schedule irrigation for a large scale situation such as a large nursery, crop, turf, garden or pasture.
• Analyse the design of different drainage systems
• Formulate procedures to operate irrigation controllers, for appropriate tasks.
• Manage the maintenance of irrigation systems, both small and large scale.
• Manage the fertigation of plants through an irrigation system.
• Evaluate the design of large scale irrigation systems.
• Design an irrigation system, including its drainage.

• Explain different factors which cause water to be wasted including:
  • Evaporation
  • Run off
  • Over spray
  • Scheduling
• Determine where water is wasted, in both the operation and management of a specified irrigation system
• Determine changes to achieve more efficient water usage, in a specified system.
• Develop guidelines for determining when to irrigate in a particular situation.
• Determine through an analysis, when to irrigate on a studied site, by evaluating soil moisture and other characteristics of a site, periodically over two months, and referencing annual rainfall statistics over a period of years.
• Record in a log book, plant growth and soil moisture for an existing irrigation system operated using two different watering patterns, each for one month, and over two consecutive months.
• Compare differences in varying the scheduling of a watering system over two months
• Prepare an irrigation schedule for a specific garden or crop.
• Develop criteria for designing a specified drainage system.
• Explain the design criteria for a specified drainage requirement.