Department of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering (IDE)

DEPARTMENT OF IRRIGATION AND DRAINAGE ENGINEERING

Department at a glance:

The department of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering imparts technical knowledge to the students in the relevant fields of irrigation and drainage. The department has well qualified, highly specialized and experienced faculty to impart education at the UG, PG and PhD levels.  In order to cater to the technical and laboratory requirements, skilled and competent manpower is also available.

Mandates

• Teaching, research and extension activities in the relevant aspects of irrigation and drainage engineering.

• To equip the students in the design, installation and commissioning of irrigation and drainage projects.
• To conduct research to alleviate water scarcity and to improve water use efficiency for sustainable water management in climate change scenarios.
• To provide practical knowledge to students for planning and management of water resources in command areas.

Vision-mission

• On-farm water management.
• Improvement in canal command areas through optimization and modelling.
• Conjunctive use of surface and ground water.
• Decision support system for water management.
• Rainwater harvesting and management.
• Precision farming and protected cultivation.
• Studies on pressurized irrigation systems.
• Use of remote sensing and GIS in water resources management.
• Hydrologic modelling for water resources planning.
• Waste water utilization for agricultural crops.
• Surface and ground water modelling and its interaction studies.

Faculty

Dr. Sasikala D. (Civil Engg.), Professor and HoD

Dr. Rema K. P. (Soil and Water Engg.), Professor

Dr. Asha Joseph (Soil and Water Engg.), Professor

Er. Alexander Seth (Civil Engg.), Associate Professor

Dr. Anu Varughese (Soil and Water Engg.), Assistant Professor

Adhoc Faculty:

Er. Praveena K. K. (Soil and Water Engg.), Assistant Professor (C )

Er. Namitha M. R. (Soil and Water Engg.), Assistant Professor(C )

Technical and Supporting staff

Mr. Manoharan M. R., Trade Assistant (Plumber)

Mr. Praveen P., Trade Assistant (Forger and Heat Treater)

Mr. Surjith C. P., Trade Assistant, (Electrician)

Academic Programmes

BTech in Agricultural Engineering

MTech in Agricultural Engineering (Soil and Water Engineering)

PhD in Agricultural Engineering (Soil and Water Engineering)

Courses offered for BTech Programme

Core courses

• Engineering Mechanics
• Fluid Mechanics and Open Channel Hydraulics
• Strength of Materials
• Building Construction and Cost Estimation
• Design of Structures
• Irrigation Engineering
• Sprinkler and Micro Irrigation Systems
• Drainage Engineering
• Ground Water, Wells and Pumps

Elective Courses

• Management of Canal Irrigation System
• Minor Irrigation and Command Area Development
• Water Quality and Management Measures
• Design and Maintenance of Greenhouse
• Landscape Irrigation Design and Management
• Application of Geospatial Techniques in Water Resources
• Environmental Engineering
• Numerical methods in Water Resources
• Irrigation Structures
• Climate Change and Use of Geoinformatics

Student READY programmes

• Skill development training on planning, design and installation of sprinkler and micro-irrigation systems
• In-plant training in the state government departments and ICAR institutes
• Projects in the relevant fields of irrigation and drainage engineering.

Courses offered for MTech Programme

• Design of Farm Irrigation Systems
• Agricultural Drainage Systems
• Ground Water Engineering
• Design of Pumps for Irrigation and Drainage
• Open Channel Flow
• Flow Through Porous Media
• Soil Physics and Applications

Courses offered for PhD Programme

• Advanced Hydro-Mechanics in Soil Aquifer Systems
• Hydro Chemical Modelling and Pollutant Management
• Advanced Irrigation Engineering
• Advanced Drainage Engineering
• Plant Growth Modelling and Simulation
• Soil            Physics

Facilities

Department is equipped with almost all the instruments/facilities required to conduct the experiments/practicals as per the UG/PG/PhD syllabus as follows:

• Irrigation Engineering laboratory
• Hydraulics laboratory
• Strength of Materials laboratory
• Poly house for experiments on protected cultivation
• Drainage type lysimeter for field water balance studies

On-going research projects

MTech Research

• Modelling the impact of conservation structures and climate change on water yield
• Modelling the impact of land use land cover changes on the runoff processes
• Water conservation measures and cropping pattern for a watershed using geospatial techniques and SWAT
• Flood frequency analysis and modelling of flood

PhD Research

• Conjunctive water balance model for a multicrop irrigation command
• Irrigation planning and management of canal irrigated command using Geospatial techniques
• Spatial mapping of flood prone areas and risk assessment of Chalakudy river basin
• SWAT-MODFLOW integrated modelling approach for surface – ground water interactions

External aided projects completed

• Evaluation and standardization of a micro sprinkler developed by a farmer-Funded by KSCST
• Studies on augmenting vegetable production by poly house cultivation using water and energy efficient ecofriendly technologies- Funded by state plan

Extension activities

• Resource personnel for KVK, PFDC and the line departments.
• Radio talks.

Consultancy/Advisory services

• Planning Board
• Agriculture Department
• LSGD
• Irrigation Department
• Jalanidhi   

Research accomplishments

1. Research papers published in peer reviewed journals: 26 No.s
2. Technologies developed:

• Established a solar powered poly house with irrigation facilities.
• Assessed the future impacts of climate change and watershed developments on river basin hydrology.
• Assessed the expected rainfall amount, climatic water balance and water availability of a selected cropped area.
• Identified potential groundwater zones and developed a transient ground water flow model.
• Developed an automatic pulse irrigation system.
• Developed crop coefficient values and evapo-transpiration parameters of Okra in polyhouse.
• Assessed the impact of land use change on the hydrology of a watershed.
• Hargreaves, open pan and Christiansen models were identified for use in the humid tropical region and their relationship with lysimetric data were generated.
• Assessed the effect of micro climate on the performance of salad cucumber under naturally ventilated polyhouse.
• Assessed the suitability of sensor based automatic drip irrigation system.
• Assessed the irrigation schedules and water & fertilizer use efficiency of salad cucumber under soilless culture.
• Developed a horizontal filter unit for ground water recharge through abandoned tube wells.
• Developed DRS models for the estimation of soil moisture contents at field capacity and wilting point.

Dr. D. Sasikala

Professor & Head

Department of  IDE, KCAET, Tavanur

Mob.: 9446463549