Date of Award:

5-2016

Document Type:

Thesis

Degree Name:

Master of Science (MS)

Department:

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Committee Chair(s)

Niel Allen

Committee

Niel Allen

Committee

David Rosenberg

Committee

Kelly Kopp

Committee

Andy Keller

Abstract

The socioeconomic landscape of water in Utah is rapidly changing due to population growth, conversion of agricultural land to urban development, and increasing awareness of future water scarcity. The Utah Division of Water Resources (DWRe) forecasts that the currently developed water supplies will not be enough to provide for Utah’s future population, and is pursuing conservation and new development to be able to meet the state’s needs.

Along with the urban growth Utah is experiencing a quickly growing sector of urban and small farm agriculture, but knowledge of water use and current practices in this area is limited. Further research in this area aids in understanding the impact of land use change on the state’s hydrology, aids the state water authorities in current and future water use estimates, assists farmers in moving towards wiser agricultural water management, and gives insight to USU Extension as how to better meet the needs of small irrigators.

My research creates a clearer picture of urban and small farm agricultural irrigation in Utah. For the 2015 growing season I performed thorough irrigation evaluations for 24 urban and small farm fields in Cache Valley, Utah, and I explore the results from both case study and statistical perspectives. My results show a great degree of heterogeneity with irrigation efficiencies ranging from 6% to 100%, signifying that for single-use river basins significant water savings could be possible by addressing inefficiencies at the urban and small farm scale. I observe and compare trends in efficiencies in order to identify which factors (e.g. size, crop, irrigation method, scheduling) led to efficient and inefficient irrigation practices. Additionally, I explore the unique circumstances of the few outliers with exceptionally high application depths, and I provide recommendations for improvement that these irrigators as well as others with similar circumstances can benefit from. Insight into water use in this sector, and recommendations for the improved management thereof, are provided to numerous parties including the DWRe, Utah State University Extension, and the urban and small farm irrigators that took part in my study.

The funding for this research was provided by the Utah Water Research Laboratory in Logan, Utah.

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