CHAPTER FOUR

DESIGN MODLE FOR CATCHMENTS

- Relationship between catchment and

cultivated area
- Total size of the micro-catchment

Introduction
Each water harvesting system consists of a
catchment (runoff collection) area and cultivated
(concentration) area.
The first step in designing a water harvesting
system is to calculate the ratio between catchment
to cultivated area depending on the:
water requirement and
effective rainfall of the area.

Catchment and Cultivated area

If the catchment to cultivated area ratio is not followed, the

catchment area may be too big relative to the cultivated area and
the excess water (runoff) will damage the crop and the structure
OR
If the catchment is too small relative to the cultivated area, the

catchment will give below the required amount and the crop will
suffer due to insufficient water or moisture stress.
For an appropriate design of water harvest systems, it is

recommended to determine the ratio between catchment and

cultivated area.

Catchment and Cultivated area

The amount of water harvested from the catchment area is the

amount of runoff created by the rainfall (design rainfall) on the area.
The runoff created is calculated by multiplying the design rainfall
with a runoff coefficient of the catchment (K).
As not all runoff can be efficiently utilized because of loss of runoff
by evaporation, further infiltration and deep percolation, it must be
additionally multiplied with an efficiency factor.

The amount of water required is obtained by multiplying the size of

cultivated area with water requirement which is the total water
requirement minus the design rainfall on the cultivated area.

Catchment and Cultivated area

By substitution on the original equation:

After rearranged it, we can get:

Design rainfall is the expected rainfall on average of the cropping

season which is estimated from local rainfall data using certain
probability law or occurrence.
The design of all water harvesting schemes would be based on a
higher probability (lower design rainfall) in order to make the system
more reliable and to meet the crop water requirement more frequently.

 Note: K is a proportion or percentage of rainfall which creates surface

runoff along the ground.
It depends on the physical condition of the catchment and rainfall
event of the area and efficiency (Eff.) is a factor which takes into
account the efficiency or uneven distribution of water within the field
(cultivated area) as well as losses of water due to evaporation and
deep percolation.
It depends on the condition of the cultivated area and where it is
leveled and smooth, the efficiency is higher.
For example: micro-catchments have high efficiency factor. Normally
the factor ranges between 0.5 to 0.75.

 Example: In arid climatic region an external catchment (trapezoidal

bunds) of water harvesting structure was constructed in order to
irrigate millet crop type using the harvested water having a total water
requirement of 475 mm through its total growth season. Assume that
the total design rainfall (DRF) during the plant growing season was
250 mm with 67% probability of occurrence with seasonal coefficient
(K) of 0.25 (low in long catchment) and efficiency factor (Eff.) 0.5.
Determine the ratio of catchment area to cultivated area (C: Ca)?

Therefore, the catchment area must be 7.2 times larger than the
cultivated area.

Total size of the micro-catchment

The determination of crop water requirements of trees is difficult,
only rough estimates are made for indigenous and multipurpose trees
which are commonly planted in water harvesting systems.
Trees are grown in micro-catchment (which contains both the
catchment and cultivated area) and it is sufficient to estimate only the
total size of the micro-catchment, as water is extracted by the roof
system of a tree from the micro-catchment.

Where,
MC is the total size of the micro-catchment (m2),
RA is area exploited by the root system and is equal to the canopy of the tree
covers (m2),
WR is water requirement of a canal (loss from the canal) (mm),
DRF is deign rainfall (mm), K is runoff coefficient and
Eff. is the efficiency factor of water harvesting structure both are in fractional.

Total size of the micro-catchment

Example
A fruit tree was planted in semi-arid region having 1000 mm annual
water requirement. The design rainfall was 350 mm and the canopy
of mature tree covers 10 m2 with both runoff coefficient and
efficiency factor 0.5. Calculate the total micro-catchment size?
Solution

= 84 m2

Thank
you