Irrigation System Evaluation Program Services

The Cal Poly Irrigation Training & Research Center (ITRC) software and procedure for the rapid evaluation of drip and microirrigation systems has been widely used in California by mobile laboratories, consultants, and others. The ITRC rapid procedure uses limited sampling to estimate a field’s distribution uniformity (DU) with about 1 person/day of field work. Programs that use this procedure are popular with farmers because the evaluations clearly show the locations and relative magnitudes of problems due to plugging and pressure differences between emitters. The evaluation procedure also defines the relative importance of various problems, plus it gives an estimate of the field DU.