The effects of land consolidation projects on pressurized irrigation system design and the cost: A case study from Türkiye

Land consolidation projects (LCP) has been applied in various countries to decrease land fragmentation, to give field road and to create more appropriate regular parcel shapes besides many benefits to farmers. Moreover, LCP help to decrease the cost of irrigation system establishment. Türkiye aims to modernize open irrigation systems into pressurized systems with LCPs to save water due to climate change and global warming. However, previously published studies on the effect of LCP on designing pressurized irrigation network are not adequate. In this study, Eymir Village LCP in Türkiye was chosen as the material to investigate how can LCP affect the cost of the establishment of a pressurized irrigation system. In this context, two similation of irrigation systems are designed with help of geographic information systems (GIS) and are analyzed by COPAM (Combined Optimization and Performance Analysis Model) to optimize the hydraulic performance. Results show that land consolidation proved to be an effective tool to solve spatial problems related to improving the irrigation systems, technical problems related to the performance of the networks, and the equity of services (guaranteeing 98% satisfaction of users). And, it has the most important effect on the economic feasibility of pressurized irrigation network establishment whose cost can be decreased by 13.6% by LCP.