Control Methods in Automated Gravity Irrigation Systems: a review

Irrigation planning and management is vital in achieving food security. The water delivery to many small farms at varying times can be difficult to manage. Deviations between the predictive/control model and the reality can be caused by climatic variations or unscheduled demands by farmers. Furthermore, irrigation canals are large-scale systems, consisting of many interacting components, equipped with local controllers to modulate the flow of water by adjusting the settings of the gates. The available methodologies are mainly aimed at the optimal irrigation scheduling. This review provides the basis for the application of control methods to the irrigation systems.