Agriculture Irrigation Efficiency

Audit independently measured applied/storage/runoff/drainage water balance, leaving unaccounted water explicit rather than calling all loss evaporation; not a uniformity or pump efficiency alias.

Description

Applied irrigation can be partitioned into root-zone storage, runoff, deep drainage and unaccounted water.

Applied irrigation can be partitioned into root-zone storage, runoff, deep drainage and unaccounted water. Keeping the residual explicit avoids labeling every unmeasured loss as evaporation.^[1]

Audit independently measured applied/storage/runoff/drainage water balance, leaving unaccounted water explicit rather than calling all loss evaporation; not a uniformity or pump efficiency alias.

When to use Agriculture Irrigation Efficiency

Use this tool to audit independently measured applied/storage/runoff/drainage water balance, leaving unaccounted water explicit rather than calling all loss evaporation; not a uniformity or pump efficiency alias.

Prepare the field, crop, soil or material measurements for the intended period. Confirm units, dry/wet bases and supplied parameters; keep paired observations aligned.

How to use Agriculture Irrigation Efficiency and understand its results

Prepare the field, crop, soil or material measurements for the intended period. Confirm units, dry/wet bases and supplied parameters; keep paired observations aligned.
Enter appliedIrrigationVolumeM3, rootZoneStoredVolumeM3, runoffVolumeM3, deepDrainageVolumeM3 using the field table and calculation rules, then run the tool.
Read measuredStorageEfficiency, unaccountedAppliedVolumeM3, measuredRunoffFraction, measuredDrainageFraction. The explanation below defines the units, signs, ordering and any flags or placeholder values.
If the tool reports an input issue, correct the values and run it again. Apply the stated assumptions when interpreting a successfully returned result.

Input field	Meaning	Value type; see rules below	Requirement
appliedIrrigationVolumeM3	Applied irrigation volume m3	number	Required
rootZoneStoredVolumeM3	Root zone stored volume m3	number	Required
runoffVolumeM3	Runoff volume m3	number	Required
deepDrainageVolumeM3	Deep drainage volume m3	number	Required

Enter positive applied m³ and nonnegative stored, runoff and drainage m³. Their accounted sum may not exceed applied water. Return storage efficiency, unaccounted m³ and runoff/drainage fractions.

storageEfficiency = stored/applied; residual = applied−stored−runoff−drainage

Units, indexing, boundary conditions and exceptional cases are defined in the calculation rules above.

Output field	Meaning	Value type
measuredStorageEfficiency	Measured storage efficiency	number
unaccountedAppliedVolumeM3	Unaccounted applied volume m3	number
measuredRunoffFraction	Measured runoff fraction	number
measuredDrainageFraction	Measured drainage fraction	number

json

{
  "input": {
    "appliedIrrigationVolumeM3": 100,
    "rootZoneStoredVolumeM3": 60,
    "runoffVolumeM3": 10,
    "deepDrainageVolumeM3": 20
  },
  "output": {
    "measuredStorageEfficiency": 0.6,
    "unaccountedAppliedVolumeM3": 10,
    "measuredRunoffFraction": 0.1,
    "measuredDrainageFraction": 0.2
  }
}

Limitations and assumptions

The volumes must be independent observations on a matched basis. Unaccounted water is not assigned a cause, and this is neither distribution uniformity nor pump efficiency.

Numeric inputs must be finite. Follow the calculation-specific rules for overflow, underflow and exceptional cases. Missing required fields, extra fields, wrong value types and violations of the calculation rules are input errors.

Alternative or Complementary methods

Use Agriculture Irrigation Water Requirement: Balance caller interval crop demand with already-effective rainfall and planned available soil-storage draw, then convert to gross irrigation by supplied efficiency; no storage draw beyond caller availability or irrigation scheduling recommendation. For a complementary task, use Agriculture Sprinkler Precipitation Rate: Convert measured catch-can volumes/openings to local sprinkler precipitation rates and weight by represented ground area; no ideal spacing/discharge uniformity assumption.

References

Agriculture Irrigation Efficiency — tool.io

Similar or alternative tools

Agriculture Irrigation Water Requirement
Balance caller interval crop demand with already-effective rainfall and planned available soil-storage draw, then convert to gross irrigation by supplied efficiency; no storage draw beyond caller availability or irrigation scheduling recommendation.
Agriculture Sprinkler Precipitation Rate
Convert measured catch-can volumes/openings to local sprinkler precipitation rates and weight by represented ground area; no ideal spacing/discharge uniformity assumption.