Author(s): Brian Wahlin; Bert Clemmens

Linked Author(s): Brian T. Wahlin

Keywords: Irrigation systems; Canal and diversion structures; Canal management; Operator training

Abstract: The Central Arizona Project (CAP) is designed to bring about 1.85 billion cubic meters (1.5 million acre-feet) of Colorado River water per year to Maricopa, Pima, and Pinal counties in Arizona. The CAP canal system is a 540-km (336-mile) long system of conveyance aqueducts, tunnels, pumping plants, and pipelines that is monitored and remotely controlled using Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) software from CAP headquarters in Phoenix, AZ. Because the CAP is crucial to the renewable water supply in Arizona, operating the canal effectively is of utmost importance. Typical day-to-day operations for Water System Operators on the CAP involve efficiently conveying water through the system while meeting water orders from the various customers along the canal. The Water System Operators are also expected to respond to emergency conditions while protecting the infrastructure in the canal and minimizing interruptions to the water orders. Since day-to-day operations do not adequately prepare Water System Operators for emergency conditions, CAP has utilized a unique training tool that replaces the real canal with a hydraulic simulation model without requiring any modifications to the existing SCADA setup. Using this training tool, the new Water System Operators can now be trained to operate the CAP canal system under a much wider range of flow conditions and emergency situations without endangering the actual canal system, wasting water, or interrupting water orders. The training tool gives the Water System Operators a larger knowledge base with which to handle emergency situations and conveys experience and institutional knowledge to new Water System Operators.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15142/T3710628160853

Year: 2016