Reliability of the Reservoirs at the Region of the Former Lake Karla in Thessaly in Meeting Crop Water Requirements
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RELIABILITY OF THE RESERVOIRS AT THE REGION OF THE FORMER LAKE KARLA IN THESSALY IN MEETING CROP WATER REQUIREMENTS S. Kotsopoulosr,I.Alexiou2, P. Lokkasl,D. Kalfountzos',G. Gravanisrand S. Magalios3 ) TEI Larissa, STA,Dept CIW, 41I 10 Larissa, hals<:prtult.t{<lleil{q,Et:,p,it;l:kq:,iii.!t:.i!sr"gr, 2 u A GR E p / t SC M, 1, Theop hr ast os Str., L aris sa,.g:eip4!gpil4r#.g: 313.Korai itr..41223Larissa Abstract: For the time being, twelve surface reseryoirsoperate in the area of the former lake Karla in order to supply the sufficient water quantitiesfor inigation of the nearby cultivated areasmainly during the period June- August when the irrigation water requirementsare high while the availablewater from other resoutcesis negligible. In the present study, monthly climatic data for a period of 43 years (1953-199'7),from the meteorologicalstation of the National Meteorological Service(N.M.S.) in Larissaare utilised for the estimationof reservoirevaporation and the crop water requirementsin order to evaluatethe efficiency of reservoirsin meeting crop water requirementswith referenceto their technicalcharacteristics and the size ofthe irrigated areas.The analysisexemplifies that the reliability amongthe various reservoirsofthe sfudy areais not the same.Reservoirs usually do not cover the total crop water requirements ofthe areasthey serve.On average,they cover only part ofthem (48 - 83%), dependingon their characteristicsand the cropping patternofthe sub-areathey serve. Key words: Evaporation,evapotranspiration, FAO 56 Penman-Monteith,reliability, reservoir. l.INTRODUCTION The Thessalyplain, dominatedby the Pinios river watershed,is the largestagricultural area in Greece.Under the presentwater managementregime, the availablewater provides only 40-70%oof the crop water needsover much of the arca andextensive droughts occur during critical periodsof the growing season(July-August) with adverseeffects on crop yield and quality. In order to alleviatethese effects a number of irrigation related structureshave beenplanned and constructed. For that pu{pose,twelve surfacereservoirs operate in the areaof the former lake Karla in order to supplythe sufficient water quantitiesfor irrigation of the nearbycultivated areas. In the frame of the researchprogramme "Archimedes - EPEAEK II", co-fundedby the European SocialFund & NationalResources and realised by the Dept.of Civil Engineeringof TEI of Larissa, Greece,under the title "spatialmapping and estimationof hydrologicalrisk, emphasisingon floods and draughtsin urban and rural areasof Thessalyand their environmentalimpacts", the above regionhas been selected as sfudy area. The researchaims at estimatingthe reliability of the above structures,i.e. water reservoirs,in coveringthe essentialwater quantitiesfor irrigation. In the study areathere are twelve (12) reservoirs(Land Reclamation 2005; Goumas2006) in total that supply irrigation water into nine sub-areas,as shown in Figure 1. Thesereservoirs are filled up with water, through pumping, early in the spring from Pinios river. This water is then used to irrigate the local cultivationsduring the dry period (mainly Juneand July). In the study area,sprinkler and trickle irrigation is applied on 70o/oof the cultivationswhile the rcst30oh,mainly serials,are rain fed. From thoseirrigated areascotton coversabout 85olo, while the rest is cultivatedby maize,alfalfa and processedtomatoes. Given the size of reservoirsalong with the coffespondingirrigated area and the distribution of crops, it is consideredmore than necessaryto evaluatethe reliability of eachreservoir in meeting O EWRASeventh International Conference WaterResources Conservancy and Risk Reduction Under Climatic Unceftainty Limassol,Cyprus, 25-27 June2009 the irrigation water needs,taking into accountthe variability of climatic conditions from year to year. Methodologiesfor validating irrigation networkshave been proposed in the past for specificcrop species(Kotsopoulos 1989; Kotsopoulosand Svehlik 1995).This work necessitatesmainly the estimationof both the evaporationof reservoirsand the evapotranspirationof crops on a monthly basis. These estimationsare then utilised to calculatethe water balanceof each sub-regionfor a certainnumber of years. E RESERVOIRS = IRRIGATEDAREAS KALAMAKI Figure l: Resewoirs and irrigated by them areas in the region of former Lake Karla This project considers monthly climate data taken from the meteorological station of the NationalMeteorological Service (N.M.S.) of Larissaalong with soil data(Kalfountzos et al. 1999) and crop speciesdata of the study area,with the aim at estimatingthe water balanceof eachsub- region which is irrigated from a certainreservoir. These estimations are then utilised to evaluatethe reliability of reservoirsin orderto cover sufficiently the local irrigation water needs. 2. MATERIALS AND METHODS Each region of cultivation is characterisedby a numberof parameters,such as water evaporation from reservoirs, crop water needs, rainfalls and reduction of soil moisture, which have to be consider.All thesefeatures have to be taken into accountin order to estimatethe water shortase 621 during eachyear and consequentlythe risk of failure in water supply for irrigation. The studyarea is closeto the city of Larissa,where a meteorologicalstation of the N.M.S. is alreadyin operation.The greaterLarissa area is sufferingby warm and dry summers.This period is crucial for crop gtowth, demandingfor irrigation great quantitiesof water. At the plain part of the county and especiallyat the region of the former Lake Karla, the prevailingtemperatures along with other climatic parameterswhich determinethe level of evaporationand evapotranspirationof crop species(solar radiation, sunshine duration, relative humidity, wind speed)are practically considered to be the sameto thoserecorded bv the N.M.S. of Larissa. 2.1 Calculation of evaporationand evapotranspiration Nowadays,the most reliable method for the calculationof evaporationand evapotranspirationis consideredthe modified Penman-Monteithequation, as describedin FAO-56 (Allen et al. 1998; Kotsopouloset al. 2003). The method is applied in two stages.Initially the evapotranspirationof the referencecrop is calculatedand then crop evapotranspirationis estimatedusing the conespondingcrop coefficientas shownin the followins relation: ET"=I{"'g7o (2.r) whereET, is the daily evapotranspiration(mm/d), K" the crop coefficientwhich is dependanton the crop developmentstage (Allen et al. 1998), andETo the evapotranspirationof the referencecrop (mm/d). Evaporationcan be calculatedin a similar way throughthe equation: E = Kr'ETo (2.2) where E is the daily evaporation(mm/d) andK" the surfacecoefficient, which, for shallow water surfacestakes the valueof 1.05 (Allen et al. 1998). The evapotranspirationof referencecrop is determinedthrough the modified Penman-Monteith methodas describedin FAO-56 (Allen et al. 1998;Kotsopoulos 2006) and is expressedthrough the equation: 0.4084(R,- q * y - eo) #hu2(e, uto - (2.3) L+ y.(1+0.34.u2) where ETo referenceevapotranspiration (mm/d), R, net radiation at the crop surface(MJm-'d-'),G soil heat flux density ltUJm-2d-t)which here can be considerednegligible_ (G = 0), T mean air temperatureat2m height (oQ, u, averagewind speedat the sameheight (ms-'), e" saturationvapour pressure.(kPa),e, actualvapour pressure(kPa), / slopeof safurationvapour curve at temperatureZ oC-') (kPa and 7 psychrometricconstant (kPaoc-'). For the evaluationof R,, the estimationof extra terrestrialradiation (R,) is essentialalong with the maximum sunshineduration (.V) which can be realisedthrough periodic functions (Kotsopoulos and Babajimopoulos 1997). Through equations (2.I) and (2.3) along with the monthly rates of climatic parameters (temperature,sunshine duration, relative humidity and wind speed)for the years 1955-1997taken from the N.M.S. of Larissa,the monthly ratesof evapotranspirationfor the aboveperiod of 43 years is calculated.These results are presented in Figure2 for theperiod 1990-94. 2.2 Cslculation of water balance The validation of reseryoirs'reliability of the study areanecessitates the water balanceof each sub-areainigated by a certainreservoir system. 7.0 6.0 . 5.0 € 4.0 F .? 3.0 F rYl 2.0 1.0 0.0 1990 r99l 1992 1993 r994 Figure 2: Calculatedvaluesof referencecrop evapotranspiration(mm/d) at Larissafor theyears 1990-94 The water balanceis estimatedper year and takes into accountthe technical charccteristicsof reseryoirs(capacity, water surface)along with the evaporationrate (Kotsopouloset al. 2006), the size of inigation areasthe cropping pattern and the crop water requirements,the rainfalls and the reductionof soil moisture. The data used for the calculations are presentedon Table 1 and refer to the technical characteristicsof reservoirs(Goumas 2006) along with the characteristicsof their irrieated sub- areas(Kotsopoulos et al. 2007). Table L' Technical characteristics ofreservoirs and their irrigated sub-areas Technical characteristics of reservoirs Characteristicsof the irrigated sub-areas R- r 3'l- s Ec' o:c s 9E * s'r ?,E Reservoir :€ (}! Li N J !c '-!<= . a^ Q = Eleftherio I. II r.70 600 4000 85 t5 2 Glafki 2.10 550 5415 85 t0 J Kalamaki I. II 8.00 2750 20000 85 l5 4 Dimitra 1.00 400 2600 6) l5 5 PlatikamposII 1.45 500 4560 85 10 5 6 PlatikamposI 0.50 250 1500 85 10 5 7 NamataI. II 2.90 983 10000 80 10 5 5 8 Omorfochori t.25 350 5000 80 20 9 Kastri l .10 350 4900 85 15 3. Resultsand discussion 623 Results refer to the averagereliability of reservoirs,R,n, its standarddeviation, SDn and