Irrigation and drainage improvements are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Often both may be required together to assure sustained, high-level production of crops.

The first consideration in planning an irrigation project is developing a water supply. Water supplies may be classified as surface or subsurface. Though both surface and subsurface water (groundwater) come from precipitation such as rain or snow, it is far more difficult to determine the origin of subsurface water.

In planning a surface water supply, extensive studies must be made of the flow in the stream or river that will be used. If the streamflow has been measured regularly over a long period, including times of drought and flood, the studies are greatly simplified. From streamflow data, determinations can be made of the minimum, maximum, average daily, and average monthly flows; the size of dams, spillways, and downstream channel; and the seasonal and carry-over storage needed. If adequate streamflow data are not available, the streamflow may be estimated from rain and snow data, or from flow data from nearby streams that have similar climatic and physiographic conditions.

The quality, as well as the quantity, of surface water is a factor. The two most important considerations are the amount of silt carried and the kind and amount of salts dissolved in the water. If the silt content is high, sediment will be deposited in the reservoir, increasing maintenance costs and decreasing useful life periods. If the salt concentration is high, it may damage crops or accumulate in the soil and eventually render it unproductive.

Subsurface sources of water must be as carefully investigated as surface sources. In general, less is known about subsurface supplies of water than about surface supplies, so, therefore, subsurface supplies are harder to investigate. Engineers planning a project need to know the extent of the basic geological source of water (the aquifer), as well as the amount the water level is lowered by pumping and the rate of recharge of the aquifer. Often the only way for the engineer to obtain these data reliably is to drill test wells and make on-site measurements. Usually, a project is planned so as not to use more subsurface water than is recharged. Otherwise, the water is said to be “mined,” meaning that as a natural resource it is being used up.

Two sources of water not often thought of by the layman are dew and sewage (sewage system). In certain parts of the world, Israel and part of Australia, for example, where atmospheric conditions are right, sufficient dew may be trapped at night to provide water for irrigation. Elsewhere the supply of waste water from some industries and municipalities is sufficient to irrigate relatively small acreages. Recently, due to greater emphasis on purer water in streams, there has been increased interest in this latter practice.

In some countries (Egypt for example) sewage is a valuable source of water. In others, such as the United States, irrigation is looked upon as a means of disposing of sewer water as a final step in the waste-treatment process. Unless the water contains unusual chemical salts, such as sodium, it is generally of satisfactory quality for agricultural irrigation. Where the practice is used primarily as a means of disposal, large areas are involved and the choice of crop is critical. Usually only grass or trees can withstand the year-round applications.

Before a water supply can be assured, the right (riparian right) to it must be determined. Countries and states have widely varying laws and customs that determine ownership of water. If the development of a water supply is for a single purpose, then the determination of ownership may be relatively simple; but if the development is multipurpose, as most modern developments are, ownership may be difficult to determine, and agreements must be worked out among countries, states, municipalities, and private owners.

The area that can be irrigated by a water supply depends on the weather, the type of crop grown, and the soil. Numerous methods have been developed to evaluate these factors and predict average annual volume of rainfall needed. Some representative annual amounts of rainfall needed for cropland in the western United States are 12 to 30 inches (305 to 760 millimetres) for grain and 24 to 60 inches (610 to 1,525 millimetres) for forage. In the Near East, cotton needs about 36 inches (915 millimetres), whereas rice may require two to three times that amount. In humid regions of the United States, where irrigation supplements rainfall, grain crops may require six to nine inches (150 to 230 millimetres) of water. In addition to satisfying the needs of the crop, allowances must be made for water lost directly to evaporation and during transport to the fields.

The type of transport system used for an irrigation project is often determined by the source of the water supply. If a surface water supply is used, a large canal (canals and inland waterways) or pipeline system is usually required to carry the water to the farms because the reservoir is likely to be distant from the point of use. If subsurface water drawn from wells is used, a much smaller transport system is needed, though canals or pipelines (pipeline) may be used. The transport system will depend as far as possible on gravity flow, supplemented if necessary by pumping. From the mains, water flows into branches, or laterals, and finally to distributors that serve groups of farms. Many auxiliary structures are required, including weirs (flow-diversion dams), sluices, and other types of dams. Canals are normally lined with concrete to prevent seepage losses, control weed growth, eliminate erosion hazards, and reduce maintenance. The most common type of concrete canal construction is by slip forming. In this type of construction, the canal is excavated to the exact cross section desired and the concrete placed on the earth sides and bottom.

Pipelines may be constructed of many types of material. The larger lines are usually concrete whereas laterals may be concrete, cement–asbestos, rigid plastic, aluminum, or steel. Although pipelines are more costly than open conduits, they do not require land after construction, suffer little evaporation loss, and are not troubled by algae growth.

After water reaches the farm it may be applied by surface, subsurface, or sprinkler-irrigation methods. Surface irrigation is normally used only where the land has been graded so that uniform slopes exist. Land grading is not necessary for other methods. Each method includes several variations, only the more common of which are considered here.

Surface irrigation systems are usually classed as either flood or furrow systems. In the flood system, water is applied at the edge of a field and allowed to move over the entire surface to the opposite side of the field. Grain and forage crops are quite often irrigated by flood techniques. The furrow system is used for row crops such as corn (maize), cotton, sugar beets, and potatoes. Furrows are plowed between crop rows and the water is run in the furrows. In either type of surface irrigation systems, waste-water ditches at the lower edge of the fields permit excess water to be removed for use elsewhere and to prevent waterlogging.

Subirrigation is a less common method. An impermeable layer must be located below, but near, the root zone of the crop so that water is trapped in the root zone. If this condition exists, water is applied to the soil through tile drains or ditches.

In recent years sprinklers have been used increasingly to irrigate agricultural land. Little or no preparation is needed, application rates can be controlled, and the system may be used for frost protection and the application of chemicals. Sprinklers range from those that apply water in the form of a mist to those that apply an inch or more per hour.

Various techniques have been tried to reduce losses of irrigation water. Two major sources of loss, particularly from surface supplies and surface systems, are evaporation (vaporization) and seepage from reservoirs and canals. Many studies have been made of techniques to suppress evaporation. One of the more promising appears to be application of a special alcohol film on the surface, which retards evaporation by about 30 percent and does not reduce the quality of the water. The primary problem in its use is that it is fragile; a strong wind can blow it apart and expose the water to evaporation.

Seepage has largely been controlled by lining main and distribution channels with impervious material, typically concrete. Other materials used are asphalt and plastic film, though plastic tends to deteriorate if it is exposed to sunlight.

The typical surface irrigation system utilizes a publicly developed water supply—e.g., a river-basin reservoir. The public project also constructs the main canals to take water from the reservoir to the agricultural land. In general the canals flow by gravity, but lift stations are often required. Supply and field canals are used to bring the water to the individual field, where it is applied to the land either by furrow or by flooding method.

Until recently most sprinkler-irrigation systems depended on privately developed water supplies, but many modern sprinkler systems have been able to draw on public water supplies. In either case, a pump is required to pump water from a large (1,000 gallons, or 3,785 litres, per minute and larger) well or a supply canal. The water goes into the system main and thence to a sprinkler unit. Many automatic or semiautomatic moving sprinkler systems travel over the field applying water. Two common units are the so-called centre pivot and the travelling sprinkler. The centre-pivot unit is anchored at the centre of the field; a long lateral (arm) with sprinklers mounted on it sweeps the field in a circle. The system has the disadvantage of missing the corners of a square field. A travelling sprinkler is mounted on a trailer and propelled across the field in a lane that has been left unplanted. The unit drags a flexible hose connected to the main supply line. When it reaches the end of the lane, it is automatically shut off and can be moved to the next lane. Despite some shortcomings, all sprinkler systems are effective in applying a controlled amount of water at a high level of efficiency with a minimum of labour.

The planning and design of drainage systems is not an exact science. Although there have been many advances in soil and crop science, techniques have not been developed for combining the basic principles involved into precise designs. One of the primary reasons for difficulty in applying known theory is the capricious variability of natural soil in contrast to the idealized soils required to develop a theory.

The type of drainage system designed depends on many factors, but the most important is the type of soil, which determines whether water will move through rapidly enough to use subsurface drainage. Soils that have a high percentage of sand- and silt-size particles and a low percentage of clay-size particles usually will transmit water (permeability) rapidly enough to make subsurface drainage feasible. Soils that are high in clay-size particles usually cannot be drained by subsurface improvements. It is essential to consider soil properties to a depth of five to six feet (1.5 to 1.8 metres) because the layer in the soil that transmits water the slowest controls the design, and subsurface improvements may be installed to these depths.

The topography or slope of the land is also important. In many cases, land in need of drainage is so flat that a contour map showing elevations 12 inches (30 centimetres) or six inches (15 centimetres) apart is used to identify trouble spots and possible outlets for drainage water. Often an outlet can be developed only by collective community action. The rainfall patterns, the crops to be grown, and the normal height of the water table also are considered. If heavy rainfall is not probable during critical stages of crop growth, less extensive drainage improvements may suffice. The capacity of the system is governed in part by the growth pattern of the crop, its planting date, critical stages of growth, tolerance of excess water, harvest date, and value.

In some areas the normal water level in the soil is high, in others low; this variable is always investigated before a drainage system is planned.

Drainage systems may be divided into two categories, surface and subsurface. Each has several components with similar functions but different names. At the lower, or disposal, end of either system is an outlet. In order of decreasing size, the components of a surface system are the main collection ditch, field ditch, and field drain; and for a subsurface system, main, submain, and lateral conduits from the submain. The outlet is the point of disposal of water from the system; the main carries water to the outlet; the submain or field ditch collects water from a number of smaller units and carries it to the main; and the lateral or field drain, the smallest unit of the system, removes the water from the soil.

The outlet for a drainage system may be a natural stream or river or a large constructed ditch. A constructed ditch usually is trapezoidal in section with side banks flat enough to be stable. Grass may be grown on the banks, which are kept clear of trees and brush that would interfere with the flow of water.

A surface drainage system removes water from the surface of the soil and to approximately the bottom of the field ditches. A surface system is the only means for drainage improvement on soils that transmit water slowly. Individual surface drains also are used to supplement subsurface systems by removing water from ponded areas.

The field drains of a surface system may be arranged in many patterns. Probably the two most widely used are parallel drains and random drains. Parallel drains are channels running parallel to one another at a uniform spacing of a few to several hundred feet apart, depending on the soil and the slope of the land. Random drains are channels that run to any low areas in the field. The parallel system provides uniform drainage, whereas the random system drains only the low areas connected by channels. In either case the channels are shallow with flat sides and may be farmed like the rest of the field. Crops are usually planted perpendicular to the channels so that the water flows between the rows to the channels.

Some land grading of the fields where surface drains are installed is usually essential for satisfactory functioning. Land grading is the shaping of the field so that the land slopes toward the drainage channels. The slope may be uniform over the entire field or it may vary from part to part. Before the advent of the digital computer, the calculations necessary for planning land grading were time-consuming, a factor that restricted the alternatives available for final design. Today, computers rapidly explore many possibilities before a final land grading design is selected.

In a subsurface drainage system, often called a tile system, all parts except the outlet are located below the surface of the ground. It provides better drainage than a surface system because it removes water from the soil to the depth of the drain, providing plants a greater mass of soil for root development, permitting the soil to warm up faster in the spring, and maintaining a better balance of bacterial action, the air in the soil, and other factors needed for maximum crop growth.

The smallest component of the subsurface system, the lateral, primarily removes water from the soil. The laterals may be arranged in either a uniform or a random pattern. The choice is governed by the crop grown and its value, the characteristics of the soil, and the precipitation pattern.

The primary decision required for a system with uniform laterals is their depth and spacing. In general, the deeper the laterals can be emplaced, the farther apart they can be spaced for an equivalent degree of drainage. Theoretical studies have shown that laterals can be spaced 24 feet (7.3 metres) apart for each foot of depth. Laterals usually are spaced from 80 to 300 feet (24 to 91 metres) apart and three to five feet (0.9 to 1.5 metres) deep.

Subsurface drainage systems are as important in many irrigated areas as they are in humid areas. A drainage system is needed on irrigated lands to control the water table and ensure that water will be able to move through a soil, thus keeping salts (salt) from accumulating in the root zone and making the soil unproductive.

Most subsurface drains are constructed by excavating a trench, installing a tile, and backfilling the trench. Work is in progress in the United States and in Europe to develop machines that will install drain tubes without excavating the trench. Control of the machines to assure proper slope of the drain has been a major problem, but recent development in excavation technology, including the use of laser beams for grade control, have helped to solve it. Traditionally, clay or concrete tile has been the principal material used, but many types of perforated plastic tubes are now employed. An advantage is the reduction in weight of the material handled.

With proper maintenance, drainage systems give relatively long life. Selected herbicides are applied to keep woody growth and water weeds out of the channels. Grates are usually installed over outlets to prevent rodents and burrowing animals from building nests.

Surface drainage systems need almost yearly maintenance to assure the slope and cross section of the channels and the slope of the graded areas because the slopes are so flat that small changes in the ground surface can make marked changes in the ability of a system to function.

Subsurface systems need periodic inspection but usually require little servicing. The outlet of the system and infrequent structural failure of the material are the usual points for service.

The need for increased food and fibre production in the 1980s and '90s requires the continued development of new agricultural lands. Development of such land is rarely possible without irrigation or drainage systems or both. Easily recognized improvements are the large-scale river-basin projects designed for flood control, irrigation, and power generation. Such projects are in various stages of design or construction in many countries of the world—for example, the People's Republic of China, India, Egypt, Iran, Australia, and the United States. In almost all cases drainage of the irrigated lands is considered a companion requirement. If possible, the drainage improvements are subsurface.

A combination of drainage and irrigation is being used to reclaim large areas of land that have been abandoned because of salt accumulation. In this case subsurface drainage systems must be installed so that high water tables are lowered and pure water flushed through the soil, dissolving the salts and carrying them away in the drainage water. Large areas in the United States, India, and the Middle East are potentially available for reclamation by this technique.

The people of The Netherlands (Netherlands, The) have reclaimed land from the sea by the use of drainage. Since the IJsselmeer (formerly Zuiderzee) barrier dam was closed in 1932, converting this large body of water into a freshwater lake, the Dutch have been continually enclosing and reclaiming smaller bodies (polders (polder)). After dikes are built around a polder, the area is drained by pumping out the water. Drainage channels and, in many places, subsurface drains are installed so that the root zone of crops can be drained. After this, cropping is started as the last step in the reclamation process.

The development of land-clearing machinery and surface-drainage techniques has made it possible to clear and drain tropical lands for agricultural production. The first step is the removal of trees, brush, and other tropical growth. Outlet ditches are constructed, followed by drains. In some cases subsurface drains are possible, but more often the soils and rainfall conditions combine to make this improvement impractical. Surface drains are installed on a uniform pattern and the land is smoothed or graded. Drainage systems on newly reclaimed tropical land require special attention while the soils are stabilizing, and some reconstruction is often needed after the soil stabilization is complete.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) keeps the most complete statistics on irrigated lands; it estimates that in the entire world some 520,000,000 acres (211,700,000 hectares) are irrigated. FAO data, supplied by each country, indicate that the largest areas under irrigation are located in such countries as the People's Republic of China, India, Pakistan, and the United States. More than 130 countries report some acreage under irrigation. The largest area reported was estimated as 113,700,000 acres (46,000,000 hectares) in the People's Republic of China. Asia, excluding the former Soviet republics, irrigates close to 65 percent of the total area of the world that is irrigated; most of this is the large surface-irrigated, rice-producing areas of the People's Republic of China, India, Pakistan, and Southeast Asia. The United States has approximately 10 percent of the world's irrigated areas. Europe has roughly 7 percent, South America and Africa each about 4 percent, and Central America about 3 percent. Australia and New Zealand together have 1 percent or less. Sprinkler irrigation is employed throughout the world, but the largest acreage to make use of the sprinkler method is the approximately 9,900,000 acres (4,006,500 hectares) in the United States.

Statistics on drainage improvements are sparser than statistics on irrigation. It may safely be said that drainage in one form or another is practiced in almost every country of the world. It is now universally accepted that drainage is needed as much on irrigated as on nonirrigated land. Countries such as India that have large-scale river-basin developments planned with irrigation also have companion drainage systems planned so that the land will not be damaged by salt accumulation.

Some indication of the world picture may be gained from the drainage census in the United States of 1959, which showed that about 92,000,000 acres (37,200,000 hectares) were drained through organized projects, about 10 percent of the land in agriculture. A rule of thumb states that there is at least one acre of privately drained land for each acre in an organized project, indicating about 185,000,000 acres (75,000,000 hectares) of agricultural land drained in the United States at that time. In the late 1970s about 5 percent of the agricultural land in the United States was drained.

It is almost certain that the land area of the world improved by irrigation and drainage will continue to increase because these practices are two of the most elemental means of reclaiming and improving agricultural lands.