Optimal irrigation allocation: A multilevel approach

Optimal resources allocation strategies for a canal command in the semiarid region of Indian Punjab are developed in a stochastic regime, considering the competition of the crops in a season, both for irrigation water and are a of cultivation. The proposed strategies are divided into two modules usin g a multilevel approach. The first module determines the optimal seasonal a llocation of water as well as optimal cropping pattern. This module is subd ivided into two stages. The first stage is a single crop intraseasonal mode l that employs a stochastic dynamic programming algorithm. The stochastic v ariables are weekly canal releases and evapotranspiration of the crop that are fitted to different probability distribution functions to determine the expected values at various risk levels. The second stage is a deterministi c dynamic programming model that takes into account the multicrop situation . An exponential seasonal crop-water production function is used in this st age. The second module is a single crop stochastic dynamic programming intr aseasonal model that takes the output of the first module and gives the opt imal weekly irrigation allocations for each crop by considering the stress sensitivity factors of crops.