University of Southeastern Philippines

Tagum-Mabini Campus
BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN AGRICULTURAL AND BIOSYSTEMS ENGINEERING

LWE 322 – Irrigation and Drainage Engineering

SCHEDULING OF IRRIGATION BY IW/CPE RATIO METHOD

Laboratory no. 4

DANIELLA P. SABAC
BSABE Student

ENGR. IRENEO AMPLAYO, PhD

Subject Adviser

June 3, 2022
INTRODUCTION
Bumper harvest is the key to prosperity, which entirely depends on the proper and judicious

use of irrigation water. A judicious use of irrigation water involves the knowledge about the quantum

of irrigation water application as and when needed by the crops. This is referred to as scheduling

of irrigation. The main point of scheduling irrigation is to irrigate and how much water to be applied

in a particular crop situation. Scientific irrigation scheduling is a technique providing knowledge on

correct time and optimum quantity of water application at each irrigation to optimize crop yields

with maximum water use efficiency and at the same time ensuring minimum damage to the soil

properties.

Scheduling of irrigation based on IW /CPE ratio approach. According to the recent concept

water requirement of crops is dependent upon climatic parameters and therefore, the cumulative

pan evaporation values are used for scheduling irrigation. It is well known that the consumptive

use of water is physical phenomena governed by the incident energy at a place and is not a

physiological process. Based on this fact, the climatological approach of scheduling irrigation has

been developed and it involves the depth of irrigation water (IW) and the cumulative pan

evaporation (CPE). The ratio IW/CPE serves as a soil moisture stress index. The lower the ratio,

the more will be the stress and vice-versa.

Example
Taking experimental data, an example for scheduling irrigation based on pan evaporation
is given below:
Irrigation water to be applied = 7.0 cm
IW /CPE ratio = 0.9
Date of sowing of wheat = 15th November, 2007
Solution:
Ratio = IW/CPE
0.9 = 7.0 / CPE
CPE = 0.7/0.9 cm = 7.78 cm = 77.8 mm

Problems:
1) We will irrigate the wheat crop after 5th day. If IW/CPE ratio of wheat is 0.9, then what is
the amount of irrigation water required?
2) We will irrigate the wheat crop after 7th day. If IW/CPE ratio of maize is 0.8, then what is
the amount of irrigation water required?

Table: Pan evaporation data

Date Pan evaporation / day Cumulative pan

(mm) evaporation (mm)

1st Nov, 2020 2.4

2nd Nov, 2020 2.6

3rd Nov, 2020 2.5

4th Nov, 2020 2.6

5th Nov, 2020 4.1

6th Nov, 2020 3.5

7th Nov, 2020 2.9

8th Nov, 2020 2.6

9th Nov, 2020 2.7

10th Nov, 2020 2.6

 REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

Pan evaporation
Pan evaporation (EPan) is used to determine the amount of irrigation water to be

applied in the ratio of irrigation water (IW) and cumulative pan evaporation (CPE) from

USWB Class A pan, usually known as IW/CPE ratio method.

IW/CPE
The use of IW/CPE ratio is suggested as a practical basis of scheduling irrigation.

The approach is based on the close and direct relationship of crop evapotranspiration

with pan evaporation. When irrigation is applied, water is lost from the soil through

evapotranspiration in the same way as the evaporation occurs from an open pan

evaporimeter. It is ratio of the amount of irrigation water (IW) applied to cumulative pan

evaporation (CPE). The pan evaporation values are added up every day till it is equal to

certain ratio of the amount of water applied as irrigation. The ratio for various crops is

determined experimentally by estimating the evapotranspiration by lysimeter studies.

The IW/CPE ratios for various crops at different agro-climatic conditions in India have

been determined under ICAR Coordinated Project for Research on Water Management.

IW/CPE ratio of 1.0 indicates scheduling irrigation with quantity of irrigation water

equal to that lost in evaporation. If 5 cm water is applied when the cumulative pan

evaporation is 10 cm, the IW/CPE ratio will be 0.5 (5/10 cm). The ratio is usually fixed

anywhere between 0.5 and 1.0. Smaller ratio indicates irrigation at longer intervals and

larger ratio indicate frequent irrigations. This method appears to be simple, provided

evaporation pan is available. In the absence of any evaporation pan, simple one liter can
with a pointer to measure evaporation rate (can evaporimeter) can be used for

scheduling irrigation.

Irrigation Scheduling Concept

Irrigation scheduling is essential for good water management and it deals with two classical

questions related to irrigation. These are (1) how much to irrigate and (2) How often to

irrigate. How often and how to irrigate is function of irrigation water needs of the crop. For

example, if irrigation water need of crop is 5 mm/day, each day crop needs a water layer

of 5 mm over the whole cropped area. However, 5 mm of water need not be supplied every

day. Generally, drips irrigation systems are designed to meet irrigation water requirement

on daily or at an interval of 2-3 days. However, longer gap between irrigations is

maintained in other irrigation system. In any case, irrigation interval is chosen such that

crop does not suffers from water tress.

 METHODOLOGY

Materials Needed
Microsoft Excel and Monthly data summary from USeP-PAGASA Agrometeorological

Research Station.

Procedure
1. Select a data required for calculating the depth of irrigation water (IW) and the

cumulative pan evaporation (CPE)

2. Input the evaporation data needed for the calculations in Microsoft Excel.

3. Solve the CPE using its formula.

4. Plot and Graph

 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Crop: Rice
Irrigation water to be applied = 10.0 𝑐𝑚
IW /CPE ratio = 2.1

Date of sowing = January 1, 2018

𝑅𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜 = 𝐼𝑊/𝐶𝑃𝐸
2.1 = 10.0/𝐶𝑃𝐸
𝐶𝑃𝐸 = 10.0/2.1 = 4.76 𝑐𝑚 = 47.6 𝑚𝑚

Date PE (mm) CPE (mm) Date PE (mm) CPE (mm)

January 1 1.3 2.8 January 17 2.1 44.7
January 2 3.9 6.7 January 18 1.7 46.4
January 3 1.4 8.1 January 19 2.6 49
January 4 3.3 11.4 January 20 3.2 52.2
January 5 2.2 13.6 January 21 4.0 56.2
January 6 3.0 16.6 January 22 2.2 58.4
January 7 2.7 19.3 January 23 3.3 61.7
January 8 3.3 22.6 January 24 1.7 63.4
January 9 2.7 25.3 January 25 2.4 65.8
January 10 1.5 26.8 January 26 2.8 68.6
January 11 3.3 30.1 January 27 2.9 71.5
January 12 2.2 32.3 January 28 3.3 74.8
January 13 2.6 34.9 January 29 3.5 78.3
January 14 3.5 38.4 January 30 3.3 81.6
January 15 1.9 40.3 January 31 1.9 83.5
January 16 2.3 42.6

Figure 1. Pan evaporation data per day and Cumulative pan evaporation of January 2018

*PE – Pan evaporation/day in millimeters

*CPE - Cumulative pan evaporation in millimeters
 The CPE computed was 4.76 𝑐𝑚 𝑜𝑟 47.6 𝑚𝑚, in the data that was computed

according to the graph and table January 29 recorded 49 millimeters. It means we

will irrigate the rice crop when CPE reaches January 29.

The result clearly demonstrates the relationship between water irrigation and

evaporation to every crops. It shows how water and air play a significant role in the

overall health of the crop and helps scheduling crop irrigation with an appropriate

time and amount of water. IW/CPE or IW/Epan is the ratio of net depth of irrigation

water (IW) to cumulative pan evaporation (CPE) excluding effective rainfall. IW is

decided by the available water holding capacity of the soil and the probable deficit

before irrigation (Note that gross depth of irrigation would vary depending on the

irrigation efficiency that can be achieved). In the experiment, the calculated

cumulative pan evaporation is 62.5 mm.

 In many cases irrigation scheduling is performed based on the irrigator's

personal experience, plant appearance, watching the neighbor, or just simply

irrigating whenever water is available. However, over the year a number of

irrigation scheduling techniques based on soil water monitoring, plant monitoring

and water balance approach have been developed. Soil water monitoring

techniques are already covered. We will summarize these methods in this lecture

but will focus on irrigation scheduling based on soil water balance approach. Each

of these irrigation scheduling philosophies have some shortcomings. To overcome

these in the future a combination of soil water monitoring and plant status will be

the most appropriate choice.

 REFERENCES

Marks, 9. (n.d.). IW/CPE ratio. Retrieved from 99MARKS: http://99marks.in/iw-cpe-ratio/

Nandini, I. (n.d.). When to Irrigate the Crops? | Irrigation | Crops | Agronomy. Retrieved
from Agriculture in India: https://www.agricultureinindia.net/irrigation-2/when-to-
irrigate-the-crops-irrigation-crops-agronomy/14025
Shiksha, e.-K. (n.d.). Irrigation water/Cumulative pan evaporation ratio (IW/CPE ratio).
Retrieved from E-course Online:
http://ecoursesonline.iasri.res.in/mod/page/view.php?id=8936
Shiksha, e.-K. (n.d.). LESSON 27. Irrigation Scheduling. Retrieved from E-course Online:
http://ecoursesonline.iasri.res.in/mod/page/view.php?id=2004