Methodology to improve water and energy use by proper irrigation scheduling in pressurised networks

These methods were applied to a Mediterranean irrigation system, where the total cropped area was mainly citrus orchards. In this case study, water was allocated to two groups of intakes, one fed by gravity and the other by pumps. A saving of 36.3% was achieved by increasing the total volume supplied by gravity, decreasing the injection pump head, and improving the pump performance. Therefore, all the intakes only operated during the irrigation periods at the minimum required pressure.