The Challenge
The Sportsfield Irrigation Software is targeted at helping review Melbourne’s future developments and existing irrigation practices for sports fields.
The Project
This project delivered on three objectives:
- Investigation of the socioeconomic effects of water restrictions on the use of sports fields,
- Provision of an information package for decision makers on the development and management of sports fields,
- Development of a software model, to quantify irrigation water and nutrient demand and their dependence on the use of alternative water sources.
The Outcome
The socioeconomic impact study found:
- Water Restrictions led to a reduction in usable sports fields and created new demands on local government, sporting clubs and volunteer groups,
- The resulting redistribution of sporting field allocations excluded less advantaged segments of the community,
- Restrictions compromised community capacity to contribute toward governmental health, well-being and participation objectives,
- Sports fields are viewed as core community assets. A survey showed a significant section of the community is willing to pay to ensure availability.
The information package addresses the following factors:
- Turf types and irrigation volume,
- Turf and soil health,
- Human health and community acceptance of alternative water sources,
- Six alternative water sources and their impacts on irrigation.
The Sportsfield Irrigation Software model was developed in Visual Basic and runs on Microsoft Excel 2007 or later versions. It calculates:
- Volume of irrigation water required,
- Volume of water supplied from multiple water sources,
- Turf nutrient requirements and savings in fertilizer requirements,
- Water quality supplied from various water sources after treatment,
- Water treatment capital and operating costs and greenhouse gas emissions,
- Catchment sizes and storage volumes for a specified volumetric reliability.
