International Commission on Irrigation & Drainage Commission Interationale des Irrigation et du Drainage



Best Paper Award


The ICID Journal ‘Irrigation and Drainage’ is the flagship publication of ICID. The journal is a prestigious, peer-reviewed publication, publishing original papers on scientific, engineering, environmental and socio-economic issues associated with irrigation and drainage. It is a rich resource of reference to professionals, engineers, researchers, university professors and students of irrigation, drainage, and agriculture disciplines. Its management is governed by an International Editorial Board (EB). 'Best Paper Award' was started in 2006 to recognise the outstanding papers contributed to ‘Irrigation and Drainage’, annually.  The award consists of a citation plaque and either US$ 500 cash or US$ 800 worth of Wiley books from M/s. Wiley Blackwell (UK).   To submit your article, click here.


Best Paper Award+

YearCountryWinnerDescription
2023 Japan

The development of a hybrid model to forecast paddy water temperature as an alert system for high-temperature damage

Climate change has led to increasing global air temperatures. In the field of crop cultivation, long-term high temperatures (heatwaves) during the rice-growing season might increase the risk of high-temperature damage to rice, which might result in reductions to the yield and quality of rice. In this study, a hybrid forecast model consisting of a combined paddy field heat balance model and a meteorological forecast model is proposed for predicting 1-day-ahead water temperatures as an alert system for high-temperature damage to paddy fields, with resolution in terms of hours. The results show close agreement between the measured and predicted water temperatures, and the high-temperature alert accuracy was 88.5%. Additionally, the climate resilience of paddy fields was investigated by using the rising annual temperatures due to climate change. The observations indicate that while paddy fields are sensitive to the climate, their climate resilience can be improved through artificial measures. Farmers and managers of paddy fields can thus be made aware of the water temperatures of the paddy fields in advance to enable reasonable management of water resources and avoid high-temperature damages caused by extreme weather conditions.

2022 China

Bacillus amyloliquefaciens application to prevent biofilms in reclaimed water microirrigation systems, Volume 70, Issue 1

Reclaimed water (RW) applied in drip irrigation systems could be a solution to cope with the challenges of limited freshwater resources. Biofilm growth in irrigation systems is an unavoidable issue when using RW. To date, strong chemical bactericides mostly dominate the commercial market in controlling biofilms. However, recently scientists have been concerned about their real efficacy and environmental risks. This study assesses a low-concentration microbial antagonist (i.e., Bacillus amyloliquefaciens inoculums, BAI) intermittently injected into the systems to mitigate biofilm formation in three types of drip emitters using two kinds of treated RW. The results indicated that the application of BAI significantly (p < .05) mitigated the microbial biomass within biofilms when compared with the control groups (no-BAI). In addition, BAI reduced the contents of extracellular polysaccharides and proteins of biofilms, which decreased the total biomass in BAI treatments by 44.9%–73.8%. Consequently, BAI effectively improved the emitter performances and increased the discharge variation rate by 31.9%–44.3%. These findings might provide a new perspective to control biofouling when applying RW in irrigation systems, with potential implications for sustainable water management in agricultural production.

 

Presented at: 73rd IEC Meeting, Adelaide, Australia, 2022

2021 China

Effect of a root-zone injection irrigation method on water productivity and apple production in a semi-arid region in northwestern China, Volume 69.1

Within the Chinese Loess Plateau, water resources are scarce, and irrigation ef?ciency is a challenging issue. Traditional surface drip irrigation (SDI) methods have failed to improve irrigation ef?ciency and reduce surface evaporation in the region. An easy-to-install and practicable root-zone injection irrigation (RII) method, with a low risk of emitter clogging and which uses subsurface in?ltration-promoting apparatuses (SIPA) to deliver water directly to the root zone, was designed and tested in an apple orchard over 3 years in northern Shaanxi, China. In the 0–0.6 m soil layer (where the apple roots are concentrated), the RII method produced consistently higher soil water content than the SDI method over all three growing seasons. The soil water content was consistently higher than 60% of ?eld capacity, thus meeting the water requirements of fruit-bearing apple trees. In addition, the RII method alleviated soil desiccation, signi?cantly increased apple yields and improved fruit quality compared with the SDI method using the same volume of irrigation water. Both irrigation ef?ciency and water-use ef?ciency were improved with the RII method. These results provide a theoretical basis for the utilisation of the RII irrigation method in apple orchards in semi-arid regions, which may improve water conservation and the sustainability of apple production.

 

Keywords: Root-zone injection irrigation, subsurface, emitter clogging, surface drip irrigation

 

Presented at: 72nd IEC Meeting 2021, Marrakesh, Morocco

2020 India

Krishna Reddy Kakumanu, Yella Reddy Kaluvai, M. Balasubramanian, Udaya Sekhar Nagothu, Gurava Reddy Kotapati, and Sunitha Karanam

Adaptation to Climate Change: Impact of Capacity Building, India, Volume 68.1

Keywords: Climate, agriculture, river

Presented at: 71st IEC Meeting 2020, New Delhi, India

2019 Indonesia

Fang Wan; Wenlin Yuan; Qingyun Li; Subing Lü

Research on Risk and Early Warning System of Inter-Basin Multi-Reservoir Water Transfer-Supply Operation with Consideration of Uncertain Factors: Risk and Early Warning System, Volume 67.3

Keywords: Inter-basin; multi-reservoir operation; early risk warning system; mixed Copula function; early warning signals; uncertain factor; emergency water shortage measures

Presented at: 70th IEC Meeting 2019, Bali, Indonesia

2018 Canada

Abdelraouf Ramadan; Ragab Ragab

The Benefit to Using Drainage Water of Fish Farms for Irrigation: Field and Modelling Study using Saltmed Model, Volume 66.5

Keywords: Fertigation; drainage water of fish farms; yield production; SALTMED

Presented at: 69th IEC Meeting 2018, Saskatoon, Canada

2018 Canada

Abdullah Darzi-Naftchali; Fatemeh Karandish; Ahmad Asgari

Diagnosing Drainage Problems In Coastal Areas Using Machine Learning And Geostatistical Models, Volume 66.3

Keywords: ANFIS; groundwater level; salinity; SVM; waterlogging

Presented at: 69th IEC Meeting 2018, Saskatoon, Canada

2017 Mexico

Sabine J. Seidel; Stefan Werisch; Klemens Barfus; Michael Wagner; Niels Schütze; Hermann Laber

Field Evaluation of Irrigation Scheduling Strategies using a Mechanistic Crop Growth Model, Volume 65.2

Keywords: Irrigation scheduling; soil water tension-based irrigation; crop coefcient; crop growth modelling; multi-objective optimization; white cabbage

Presented at: 68th IEC Meeting 2017, Mexico City, Mexico,

2016 Thailand

Ludivine Pradeleix; Philippe Roux; Sami Bouarfa; Bochre Jaouani; Zohra Lili-Chabaane; Veronique Bellon-Maurel

Environmental impacts of contrasted groundwater pumping systems assessed by life cycle assessment methodology: Contribution to the water-energy nexus, Volume 64.1

Keywords: Groundwater irrigation; energy; greenhouse gas emissions; water depletion

Presented at: 67th IEC Meeting 2016, Chiang Mai, Thailand

2015 France

Dr. Willem F. Vlotman; Clarke Ballard

Water, Food and Energy Supply Chains for a Green Economy, Volume 63.2

Keywords: Water–food–energy nexus; green economy; water efficiency; energy efficiency; food waste; virtual water; water footprint; integrated water resource management; supply chain; environment; ecology

Presented at: 66th IEC Meeting 2015, Montpellier, France

2014 South Korea

Marylou M. Smith; Stephen W. Smith

Agricultural/Urban/ Environmental Water Sharing in the Western United States. Can Engineers Engage Social Science for Successful Solutions?, Volume 62.3

Keywords: Multi-sector water sharing; stakeholder collaboration; social and economic factors in water management

Presented at: 65th IEC Meeting 2014, Gwangju, Rep. of Korea

2013 Turkey

P.J.G.J. Hellegers; H.C. Jansen; W.G.M. Bastiaanssen

An Interactive Water Indicator Assessment Tool to Support Land Use Planning, Volume 61.2

Keywords: Land use planning; water productivity; remote sensing; economic analysis; water indicators

Presented at: 64th IEC Meeting 2013, Mardin, Turkey

2012 Australia

Zahra Paydar; Freeman Cook; Emmanuel Xevi; Keith Bristow

An Overview of Irrigation Mosaics, Volume 60.4 

Keywords: Irrigation mosaics; mosaics; irrigation impact; irrigation patches

Presented at: 63rd IEC Meeting 2012, Adelaide, Australia

2011 Iran

Yanbo Huang; Guy Fipps; Stephan J. Maas; Reginald S. Fletcher

Airborne remote sensing for detection of irrigation canal leakage, Volume 59.5   

Keywords: water leak detection; airborne remote sensing; multispectral imaging; irrigation distribution network; canal leakage; field reconnaissance; thermal imagery; normalized difference vegetation index

Presented at: 62nd IEC Meeting 2011, Tehran, Iran

2010 Indonesia

W. Ghazouani; S. Marlet; Mekki; A. Vidal

Farmers' perceptions and engineering approach in the modernization of a community?managed irrigation scheme. A case study from an oasis of the Nefzawa (South of Tunisia), Volume 58.3          

Keywords: Drainage; irrigation; salinity; perception; problem tree; oasis; Tunisia

Presented at: 61st IEC Meeting 2010, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

2009 India

Jianxin Mu; Shahbaz Khan; Zhanyi Gao

Integrated water assessment model for water budgeting under future development scenarios in Qiantang River basin of China, Volume 57.4      

Keywords: BHIWA model; water budgets; scenarios development; water situation indicators

Presented at: 60th IEC Meeting 2009, New Delhi, India

2008 Pakistan

Shahbaz Khan; Shahbaz Mushtaq; Yufeng Luo; David Dawe; Mohsin Hafeez; Tariq Rana

Conjunctive Water Management Options: Examples from Economic Assessment of System-level Water Saving through Liuyuankou Irrigation System, China, Volume 56.5          

Keywords: systemlevel water saving; system dynamic model; production and profit functions; China

Presented at: 59th IEC Meeting 2008, Lahore, Pakistan

2008 Pakistan

Lambert K. Smedema

Revisiting currently applied pipe drain depths for waterlogging and salinity control of irrigated land in the (semi) arid zone, Volume 56.4        

Keywords: Drainage; drain depth; waterlogging; salinity

Presented at: 59th IEC Meeting 2008, Lahore, Pakistan

2007 USA

Gerhard R. Backeberg

Reform of user charges, market pricing and management of water: problem or opportunity for irrigated agriculture?, Volume 55.1

Keywords: irrigated agriculture; user charges; market trades; water user associations; socioeconomic transformation; South Africa

Presented at: 58th IEC Meeting 2007, Sacramento, USA

2006 Malaysia

T. B. S. Rajput; Neelam Patel

Enhancement of Field Water Use Efficiency in the Indo-Gangetic Plain of India, Volume 54.2       

Keywords: Farmers' participation; land leveling; crop irrigation scheduling; water saving; wheat yield

Presented at: 57th IE Meeting 2006, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

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