Design and development of an autonomous sluice gate coordination system for aflaj irrigation

In Oman, the agricultural lands in mountainous areas and near valleys (wadis) depend mainly on irrigation using groundwater and the aflaj irrigation system. In the aflaj irrigation system, the water is distributed between the beneficiary farmers timely by dividing the irrigation cycle that can last between 4 to 24 days into smaller time divisions called athars (Al-Ghafri, 2004). However, this traditional water management and distribution method does not account for the actual amount of water utilized by each farmer but solely for the duration of irrigation, which varies daily and seasonal. In addition, directing the falaj water between canals is tedious and requires intensive physical effort by farmers to open and close water gates to divert water between agricultural lands. A traditional solution that farmers have commonly used to solve injustice in water distribution is by changing irrigation rotations between them so that those who received less water are getting compensated. Other solutions anticipated were dividing the falaj into smaller canals or storing water in large tanks. Despite these solutions, MRMWR (2008) indicated that there could be disputes between the falaj's shareowners and between owners of different falajs over water shares. Al-Ghafri (2004) reported that the knowledge of the traditional method of scheduling irrigation of aflaj water is complex and unorganized and has accumulated a defeatist attitude among farmers towards aflaj which made the knowledge about aflaj dwindling. Tayara (2015) reported that the functions of the traditional aflaj management system lack technical aspects and scientific disciplines and institutional cooperation. All the above issues related to the management of aflaj water and other socio-economical and hydrological problems are threatening the sustainability of the aflaj system in Oman as a primary source of irrigation. Hence, to overcome the issues mentioned above with afalaj management, this project aims to develop an automated sluice gate system to manage water distribution in the falaj system by incorporating both the time and water flow rate to ensure fair water distribution between farmers. The sluice gate shall be able to automatically control the water flow in a falaj channel between the agricultural mounds. The system will be powered using a photovoltaic solar energy system and a built-in microcontroller system for monitoring data, controlling the sluice gates, and publishing data for clients over the internet protocol.