Reducing Evaporative Water Losses from Irrigation Ponds through the Reuse of Polyethylene Terephthalate Bottles
Evaporation is one of the sources of water loss from artificial reservoirs used by the agricultural sector. Current methods of covering artificial reservoirs are too costly to be used by poor, small-scale farmers. This paper presents a method for using waste polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
| Published: |
American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)
2015
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/99893 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5048-4109 |
| _version_ | 1811076080635740160 |
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| author | Shanbhag, R. Simon, Kevin P. Slocum, Alexander H. |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering Shanbhag, R. Simon, Kevin P. Slocum, Alexander H. |
| author_sort | Shanbhag, R. |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Evaporation is one of the sources of water loss from artificial reservoirs used by the agricultural sector. Current methods of covering artificial reservoirs are too costly to be used by poor, small-scale farmers. This paper presents a method for using waste polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles to reduce the evaporative losses from open tanks. This water-conservation method was tested using eight evaporation pans with daily water level measurements to record evaporation rate. Four pans were used as controls, two were covered with empty waste PET bottles, and two were covered with bottles partially filled with soil. The experiment showed an average reduction in evaporation by 40% with the PET bottle treatment, with a 90% confidence of reducing evaporation by at least 18%. The addition of soil did not affect the degree of evaporation reduction. Given the local economics of the region surrounding Pune, India, it was found that this intervention can save water at a cost of US$0.09/m[superscript 3]. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T10:15:51Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/99893 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T10:15:51Z |
| publishDate | 2015 |
| publisher | American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/998932022-09-26T16:50:56Z Reducing Evaporative Water Losses from Irrigation Ponds through the Reuse of Polyethylene Terephthalate Bottles Shanbhag, R. Simon, Kevin P. Slocum, Alexander H. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Engineering Systems Division Simon, Kevin Simon, Kevin P. Slocum, Alexander H. Evaporation is one of the sources of water loss from artificial reservoirs used by the agricultural sector. Current methods of covering artificial reservoirs are too costly to be used by poor, small-scale farmers. This paper presents a method for using waste polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles to reduce the evaporative losses from open tanks. This water-conservation method was tested using eight evaporation pans with daily water level measurements to record evaporation rate. Four pans were used as controls, two were covered with empty waste PET bottles, and two were covered with bottles partially filled with soil. The experiment showed an average reduction in evaporation by 40% with the PET bottle treatment, with a 90% confidence of reducing evaporation by at least 18%. The addition of soil did not affect the degree of evaporation reduction. Given the local economics of the region surrounding Pune, India, it was found that this intervention can save water at a cost of US$0.09/m[superscript 3]. MIT Tata Center for Technology and Design 2015-11-10T18:50:26Z 2015-11-10T18:50:26Z 2015-10 2015-01 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 0733-9437 1943-4774 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/99893 Simon, K., R. Shanbhag, and A. H. Slocum. “Reducing Evaporative Water Losses from Irrigation Ponds through the Reuse of Polyethylene Terephthalate Bottles.” J. Irrig. Drain Eng. (October 9, 2015): 06015005. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5048-4109 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)IR.1943-4774.0000972 Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ application/pdf American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Simon |
| spellingShingle | Shanbhag, R. Simon, Kevin P. Slocum, Alexander H. Reducing Evaporative Water Losses from Irrigation Ponds through the Reuse of Polyethylene Terephthalate Bottles |
| title | Reducing Evaporative Water Losses from Irrigation Ponds through the Reuse of Polyethylene Terephthalate Bottles |
| title_full | Reducing Evaporative Water Losses from Irrigation Ponds through the Reuse of Polyethylene Terephthalate Bottles |
| title_fullStr | Reducing Evaporative Water Losses from Irrigation Ponds through the Reuse of Polyethylene Terephthalate Bottles |
| title_full_unstemmed | Reducing Evaporative Water Losses from Irrigation Ponds through the Reuse of Polyethylene Terephthalate Bottles |
| title_short | Reducing Evaporative Water Losses from Irrigation Ponds through the Reuse of Polyethylene Terephthalate Bottles |
| title_sort | reducing evaporative water losses from irrigation ponds through the reuse of polyethylene terephthalate bottles |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/99893 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5048-4109 |
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