Prediction of applied irrigation depths at farm level using artificial intelligence techniques

Irrigation water demand is highly variable and depends on farmer behaviour, which affects the performance of irrigation networks. The irrigation depth applied to each farm also depends on farmer behaviour and is affected by precise and imprecise variables. In this work, a hybrid methodology combining artificial neural networks, fuzzy logic and genetic algorithms was developed to model farmer behaviour and forecast the daily irrigation depth used by each farmer. The models were tested in a real irrigation district located in southwest Spain. Three optimal models for the main crops in the irrigation district were obtained. The representability (R2) and accuracy of the predictions (standard error prediction, SEP) were 0.72, 0.87 and 0.72; and 22.20%, 9.80% and 23.42%, for rice, maize and tomato crop models, respectively.