To a farmer (and also to the hydrologist conducting an irrigation
study), water for irrigation is very important. It takes work and
money to get water from a stream or out of the ground onto the crop
fields, so farmers are always looking for ways to
irrigate more smartly. Crops must be
irrigated at just the right times with the right amount of water for
best results. That means knowing how much water one is supplying to the
fields.
One common irrigation method is to use an electric pump to send or
spray water onto crops.
A simple way for a farmer (or for the
hydrologist) to estimate how much water is being used is to multiply
the length of time the pump is running by the number of gallons of
water that the pump can supply per minute.
The picture shows a DVTT -- a Digital Vibration Time Totalizer. It is simply a clock that only runs when it is being shaken! In this picture, the little black pad is attached to the pipe to detect when the pipe is vibrating, which is when the irrigation pump runs and water goes through the pipes. The DVTT is attached to the pipe and records how long the pump is running -- giving the farmer or hydrologist a good estimate of how much water is used for irrigation.
Measuring water
Human's influence
Water use
Water Science home page
U.S. Department of the Interior | U.S. Geological Survey
URL: http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/divitt.html
Page Contact Information: Howard Perlman
Page Last Modified: Friday, 07-Nov-2008 15:42:47 EST
