Verification of some drainage parameters and the performance of collector drains in northwest of the Nile Delta, Egypt
Abstract: The hydraulic performance of collector covered drains has been monitored at Balaktar area in the Northwest of the Nile Delta . The total area of the Balaktar tile drainage project is 6100 feddans including the Balaktar and Omum open drains .The discharge, the hydraulic gradient, overpressure in the selected collectors and the crop pattern were monitored. Four collectors different in length and with different crop patterns and intensities were selected to carry out this study. Two collectors discharge into Omum drain( collectors, No.10 and 12 ), and two discharge into the Balaktar drain ( collectors, No. 18 and 20 ).
The main objective of this study is at verifying the design criteria for the selected collector drains. To fulfill this objective the following points should be taken into consideration: 1) checking the validity of the current design drainage coefficient with respect to the crop pattern (4.0 mm/day for areas with rice in the crop rotation and 3.0 mm/day for areas without rice); 2) studying the relationship between the discharge rate of the collector drain and respectively the crop pattern ; and 3) monitoring the hydraulic performance of the collector drains system and to evaluate its efficiency for evacuating the drainage water.
The results revealed that, the cotton is dominated in the summer crop pattern in the studied area where it covers 48 % of the area , followed by rice and maize which covered 38 and 10% of the total command area , respectively ,while 4% is cultivated with other crops (vegetables ) or occupied by orchards .
Concerning the collector discharges, the results indicated that , the maximum measured discharge was 3.03 mm/day. The high flow rates could be attributed to unusual operational conditions. The peak discharge value varied between 1.0 and 3.0 mm/day from one collector to the other. This study emphasized that, the collector drain discharge has hardly exceeded 3.0 mm/day, however, the collector discharges never exceed the designed discharge rate of 4.0 mm/day and almost 90% of the observed discharge values are less than 3.0 mm/day. As the discharge rate of the collector drain rarely exceeded 3.0 mm/day , so the design value (4.0 mm /day for the areas cultivated with rice ) should be adjusted and reduced to 3.0 mm / day according to the actual field measurements obtained in this study . It was found also that there was no definite relationship between the discharge and the area under cultivating rice crop according to the data obtained during the current study.
The hydraulic performance of the drainage system was, generally, influenced by a reduction of the pipe cross section ( clogging ). The pipe clogging could be due to soil sediments or man-made blocking in the rice growing areas. Also, the hydraulic performance of the collector drains was , generally , poor as the observations-showed hydraulic gradients bigger than the design slope at discharge less than the design rate
Publication year 2004
Pages 1503-1521
Availability location Soils, Water and Environment Research Institute, ARC,
Availability number
Organization Name
Country Egypt
City Minufiya
Publisher Name: Faculty of Agriculture Minufiya University, Shibin El-Kom, Egypt
serial title Minufiya Journal of Agricultural Research
ISSN 1110-0265
Volume 29 . 6
Department Improvement and Conservation of Cultivated Soils Research
Author(s) from ARC
Agris Categories Drainage
AGROVOC
TERMS		 Performance testing. Subsurface drainage.
Proposed Agrovoc hydraulic gradient;design criteria;drainage coefficient;
Publication Type Journal
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