Application of GIS for Irrigation Management (Gezira scheme as an example)

Abstract

Gezira Scheme, Irrigation, Agriculture, GIS, Silt, Weeds Irrigation and agricultural services are sorts of activities held by scheme authorities to facilitate agriculture and irrigation. They composed of water supply, water management, system maintenance and number of agricultural operations. Such works involve handling of large amount of information about the canalization system and the cultivated areas. Geographic Information System is now widely used in saving, retrieving and analyzing information for better decision making. It is a tool that can help managing and enhancing information and activities to achieve better decisions. Since the start of Gezira scheme, the maintenance work of the canalization system passed through many phases. The first phase was when the crop cultivated was cotton only. The following phases encountered many changes in crops and forms of administrations. The cost of maintenance work became very high due to the escalated quantities of silt deposited and weeds. In order to reduce this high cost, accurate information and measurements of accumulated silt and weeds have to be obtained. The calculations of the deposited silt and measuring of infested weeds in canals were done manually using the conventional means and approximations. Electricity energy is now entered most of the rural areas where irrigation offices are found. So, those offices can be provided with Pcs. This facilitate using of modern techniques of computer system soft ware’s. This can increase the computation accuracy which optimize water demand and reduce volumes of silt and weeds and hence maintenance costs.