Briefing: Design of minimum water loss canals using swarm intelligence

To ensure efficient performance of irrigation canals, losses from the canals need to be minimised. In this study, the design of minimum water loss canals is performed by considering seepage and evaporation losses. The complex non-linear and non-convex optimisation model of canal design is solved using a particle swarm optimisation (PSO) approach. The solutions are found to be competitive with those reported in the literature when applied to an example problem. To suit real field applications, two site-specific constraints are added to the model for the design of trapezoidal canals. The study shows the potential of the proposed PSO approach in the comprehensive design of irrigation canals.