Water conveyance and on-farm irrigation system efficiency gains in southern Alberta irrigation districts from 1999 to 2012

Figures & data

Figure 1. Irrigation districts and major rivers in southern Alberta.

Table 1. Irrigated areas within the irrigation districts in 1999 and 2012.

Irrigation district	Irrigated area (ha)
	1999	2012
Aetna-Leavitt	2630	3160
Lethbridge Northern	59,339	71,096
Magrath	6045	7406
Mountain View	1420	1463
St. Mary Project^a	192,380	197,710
United	7044	9437
Oldman River Basin	268,858	290,272
Bow River	80,112	87,905
Eastern	111,708	119,237
Western	29,706	23,303
Bow River Basin	221,526	230,445
Total	490,384	520,717

^a The St. Mary Project includes the Raymond, St. Mary River and Taber Irrigation Districts.

Table 2. Conveyance infrastructure within the irrigation districts in 1999 and 2012.

Year	Irrigation district	Length by type of infrastructure (km)
		Membrane-lined canals	Pipelines	Concrete-lined canals	Earth canals	Un-rehabilitated canals
1999	Aetna-Leavitt	2.7	31.5	0	22.8	32.4
	Bow River	169.5	167.3	48.0	178.4	476.9
	Eastern	218.3	428.7	0	271.9	997.9
	Lethbridge Northern	50.7	168.6	55.0	75.6	370.4
	Magrath	1.3	44.3	0.3	36.0	26.4
	Mountain View	0	11.6	0	18.5	8.6
	St. Mary Project^a	127.9	828.4	169.8	399.4	861.3
	United	14.2	54.3	0	42.1	131.4
	Western	34.8	59.7	5.1	121.3	812.2
	Total	620	1794	278	1166	3717
2012	Aetna-Leavitt	6.5	53.0	0	12.7	20.6
	Bow River	149.1	479.1	16.6	202.4	152.2
	Eastern	335.6	1093.4	0	193.0	285.2
	Lethbridge Northern	56.0	439.6	45.2	65.8	130.7
	Magrath	1.2	60.7	0.3	33.5	4.9
	Mountain View	0	16.9	0	17.0	5.8
	St. Mary Project^a	128.1	1235.7	74.1	592.6	345.4
	United	15.6	103.1	0.2	61.0	55.6
	Western	47.3	210.9	5.3	164.4	631.9
	Total	739	3693	142	1342	1632

^a The St. Mary Project includes the Raymond, St. Mary River and Taber Irrigation Districts.

Table 3. On-farm irrigation systems within the irrigation districts in 1999 and 2012.

Year	Irrigation district	Irrigated area by type of irrigation system (ha)
		High-pressure pivot	Low-pressure pivot	Wheel-move	Gravity	Other
1999	Aetna-Leavitt	496.5	0	750.0	1083.3	300.2
	Bow River	32,459.9	11,728.0	21,938.1	13,916.3	69.7
	Eastern	13,106.8	28,643.0	24,495.5	44,790.5	672.2
	Lethbridge Northern	6370.8	20,433.3	30,864.6	1015.2	655.1
	Magrath	2102.7	594.4	2633.7	632.9	81.3
	Mountain View	0	0	47.4	1372.6	0
	St. Mary Project^1	16,862.8	105,612.4	58,636.2	10,171.4	1097.2
	United	2926.0	673.4	1004.7	2435.0	4.9
	Western	14,199.8	1909.8	6449.7	5079.8	2066.9
	Total	88,525	169,594	146,820	80,497	4948
2012	Aetna-Leavitt	339.4	486.6	1223.2	681.5	429.3
	Bow River	9064.0	66,884.0	5128.9	6775.5	52.6
	Eastern	12,580.1	68,893.2	11,220.7	26,195.0	348.0
	Lethbridge Northern	5453.8	45,180.4	18,907.2	853.1	701.5
	Magrath	884.6	3108.4	2076.2	1258.3	78.5
	Mountain View	0	0	205.4	1257.6	0
	St. Mary Project^1	11,911.4	151,673.4	27,425.4	5713.4	986.4
	United	1325.6	5680.0	566.6	1826.4	38.4
	Western	6577.4	12,569.6	2484.4	986.2	685.4
	Total	48,136	354,476	69,238	45,547	3320

¹ The St. Mary Project includes the Raymond, St. Mary River, and Taber Irrigation Districts.

Table 4. Crops grown within the irrigation districts in 1999 and 2012.

Year	Irrigation district	Irrigated area by crop type (ha)
		Cereals	Forages	Oilseeds	Specialty crops	Other
1999	Aetna-Leavitt	408.2	2221.8	0	0	0
	Bow River	32,136.2	20,852.5	9959.3	17,083.3	80.7
	Eastern	32,806.6	57,793.4	8771.0	11,170.9	1166.1
	Lethbridge Northern	15,729.2	33,615.3	4421.6	5383.9	189.0
	Magrath	2631.5	2713.4	671.8	28.3	0
	Mountain View	94.0	1303.6	6.2	0	16.2
	St. Mary Project^1	72,676.2	60,100.6	20,535.1	37,871.8	1196.3
	United	2001.8	4397.0	570.5	36.4	38.3
	Western	7094.2	16,463.1	3433.8	1194.2	1520.7
	Total	165,578	199,461	48,369	72,769	4207
2012	Aetna-Leavitt	540.2	2435.6	91.5	32.2	60.5
	Bow River	34,308.4	16,505.6	16,917.3	19,962.1	211.6
	Eastern	30,604.8	50,100.6	24,878.0	13,231.8	421.8
	Lethbridge Northern	16,629.6	42,410.2	9187.3	2425.3	443.6
	Magrath	2364.2	3164.4	1759.2	118.2	0
	Mountain View	349.4	1113.6	0	0	0
	St. Mary Project^a	72,220.9	50,383.1	35,218.2	38,971.7	916.1
	United	2377.6	4453.3	2376.7	205.8	23.6
	Western	6347.0	8526.6	6111.2	2147.8	170.4
	Total	165,742	179,093	96,539	77,095	2248

^a The St. Mary Project includes the Raymond, St. Mary River and Taber Irrigation Districts.

Table 5. Mean values for on-farm demand, conveyance losses and efficiency gains (mm) for the irrigation districts in 1999 and 2012 at different chances of exceedance.

Parameter	Year	River basin	Chance of exceedance (%)
			10	25	50	75	90
On-farm demand	1999	Oldman	420	382	318	269	206
		Bow	546	491	438	384	310
		Both basins combined	474	431	376	328	260
	2012	Oldman	404	368	306	260	199
		Bow	446	395	348	303	238
		Both basins combined	419	380	326	285	224
Efficiency gains		Oldman	16	14	12	9	7
		Bow	100	96	90	81	72
		Both basins combined	55	51	50	43	36
Conveyance losses	1999	Oldman	102	100	97	94	89
		Bow	194	189	186	181	173
		Both basins combined	144	140	137	133	127
	2012	Oldman	90	88	86	83	78
		Bow	169	165	161	157	150
		Both basins combined	125	122	119	116	110
Efficiency gains		Oldman	12	12	11	11	8
		Bow	25	24	25	24	23
		Both basins combined	19	18	18	17	17

Figure 2. Gross irrigation district demand (depth) under 1999 and 2012 conditions with weather variability from 1928 to 2012.

Table 6. Mean values for on-farm demand, conveyance losses and demand and conveyance loss changes (billion m³) for the irrigation districts in 1999 and 2012 at different chances of exceedance.

Parameter	Year	River basin	Chance of exceedance (%)
			10	25	50	75	90
On-farm demand	1999	Oldman	1.13	1.03	0.85	0.73	0.55
		Bow	1.21	1.09	0.97	0.85	0.69
		Both basins combined	2.33	2.11	1.84	1.61	1.28
	2012	Oldman	1.17	1.07	0.89	0.75	0.58
		Bow	1.03	0.91	0.80	0.70	0.55
		Both basins combined	2.18	1.97	1.70	1.48	1.16
Demand changes		Oldman	+0.04	+0.04	+0.04	+0.03	+0.03
		Bow	–0.18	–0.18	–0.17	–0.15	–0.14
		Both basins combined	–0.15	–0.14	–0.14	–0.13	–0.12
Conveyance losses	1999	Oldman	0.27	0.27	0.26	0.25	0.24
		Bow	0.43	0.42	0.41	0.40	0.38
		Both basins combined	0.70	0.69	0.67	0.65	0.62
	2012	Oldman	0.26	0.26	0.25	0.24	0.23
		Bow	0.39	0.38	0.37	0.36	0.34
		Both basins combined	0.65	0.63	0.62	0.60	0.57
Conveyance loss changes		Oldman	–0.01	–0.01	–0.01	–0.01	–0.01
		Bow	–0.04	–0.04	–0.04	–0.04	–0.04
		Both basins combined	–0.05	–0.05	–0.05	–0.05	–0.05

Figure 3. Gross irrigation district demand (volume basis) under 1999 and 2012 conditions with weather variability from 1928 to 2012.

Figure 4. Mean seasonal naturalized flows from 1912 to 2009 in the Oldman River, Bow River and both river basins combined.

Table 7. Mean values for naturalized flow (billion m³) in the Oldman and Bow River Basins from 1912 to 2009 at different chances of exceedance^a.

River basin	Chance of exceedance (%)
	10	25	50	75	90
Oldman River near Brockett	1.66	1.34	1.05	0.81	0.65
Waterton River at Waterton Park	0.65	0.57	0.49	0.42	0.34
Belly River at international boundary	0.24	0.21	0.18	0.15	0.13
Lee Creek at Cardston	0.09	0.05	0.04	0.03	0.02
St. Mary River at international boundary	0.93	0.81	0.68	0.59	0.49
Southern tributaries^b	1.93	1.64	1.40	1.19	0.97
Oldman River Basin	3.56	2.90	2.45	2.04	1.63
Bow River at Calgary	3.12	2.83	2.48	2.18	1.91
Highwood River Near the Mouth	1.00	0.79	0.59	0.42	0.33
Elbow River Below Glenmore Dam	0.38	0.31	0.22	0.18	0.15
Bow River Basin	4.50	3.94	3.34	2.84	2.41
Both river basins combined	7.90	6.81	5.88	4.92	4.15

^a Monte Carlo simulations were performed on flows for each river basin examined and on aggregated river flows in major river basins, so mean values at different chances of exceedance are not the sum of flows for individual rivers.

^b The southern tributaries of the Oldman River include the Waterton, Belly and St. Mary Rivers, as well as Lee Creek, a tributary of the St. Mary River.