Sakia.org eNews - Issue No. 003 (Historic)

Historic reference

This page is maintained for documentation and historic reference purposes.

Content published largely as originally issued, with only minor typographic and link adjustments (where possible) for better readability.

Information and external links may no longer be current.

Issue No. 003 - 24 October 2007

Sakia.org eNews

Issue No.: 003 - 24 October 2007

Sakia.org is a free information and communication initiative in the area of ’land and water’, fostering open and free access to knowledge in support of the international professional ’land and water’ community. This newsletter is mainly to inform the Sakia.org community about latest issues related to professional services and knowledge provided through the Sakia.org Group. Other news from within the ’land and water’ community may be included at discretion if related to the technical scope of Sakia.org.

This newsletter is free of charge and is issued at irregular intervals. It is only distributed to members of the Sakia.org community who have requested to receive this newsletter when creating the free member account on-line or to others who have requested to receive updates related to Sakia.org. I apologise if this newsletter was delivered wrongfully in which case I would kindly ask you to reply to this email and request your removal. These eNews are a service of: https://www.sakia.org/

CONTENT

Welcome and introduction
Sakia.org - an overview and links to the major services
Sakia.org - highly frequented service and important future upgrades
Virtual Library Irrigation & Hydrology - latest additions
e-Journal of Land Water - first peer reviewed papers published on-line
IRRIGATION-L email discussions - overview and latest topics covered
Recommended readings
Irrigation news
Sakia.org eNews - on-line
From the Editor

Welcome and introduction

I would like to welcome all new members who have subscribed to Sakia.org since the release of our last issue of the Sakia.org eNews.

The main objective of this newsletter is to give an overview of the latest developments and additions related to the various services provided through Sakia.org. Hence, many of the links provided hereafter lead directly to new documents or services on Sakia.org. However, in addition this newsletter is also intended to inform the community on more general issues related to Sakia.org such as current highlights or problems as well as possible future directions of Sakia.org. These issues are important for the running and continuation of this service.

Every email newsletter has an identical on-line version and links to the Sakia.org news section as well as to previous issues of this newsletter which are found under the “Sakia.org eNews - on-line” header section.

Sakia.org - an overview and links to the major services

Sakia.org comprises the following major services and modules:

Sakia.org - The framework and concept and access to all the services below
https://www.sakia.org/
IRRIGATION-L - professional email discussions and on-line archives
https://www.irrigation-l.org/
VL Irrigation & Hydrology - quality information on-line in full text (e.g. reprints)
https://www.vl-irrigation.org/
e-Journal of Land and Water - professional open access and peer reviewed publishing on-line
https://www.sakia.org/ejlw/ ⁽⁾
IRRISOFT - quality software information and on-line applications
https://www.irrisoft.org/

Sakia.org - highly frequented service and important future upgrades

The Sakia.org on-line sources currently amount to more than 6500 pages (‘click pages’ which are in most cases significantly larger than A4 print pages) consisting of on-line publications, IRRIGATION-L email discussion archives as well as other information and support pages. All content pages, including those in pdf files (e.g. publications), are being indexed and hence are fully searchable through the Sakia.org indexed search.

Sakia.org and its precursor services already exist since 1994. However, since the upgrade and re-launch in 2003, significant and vastly improved services and content could be added subsequently leading to an increased information request with a peak of more than 57,000 pages served or 100,000 hits just for the month of March this year. Between March and June visits from more than 120 different countries and top level domain groups were recorded amounting to close to 140,000 visits over the past twelve months.

Sakia.org resides on a stand-alone server and has been running for close to four years now luckily with only minor hiccups so far. However, server space and capacity has reached its limitations now and a move to a more potent server has become inevitable in order to secure reliable and improved services for the next few years. The move to a new server is highly costly as it does not only include the acquisition or renting of a new server but also requires a significant amount of time and expertise in order to migrate the system and current content to the new server while updating and upgrading necessary improved functionality.

I would appreciate some feedback related to possible donors and sponsors who might be interested in supporting the Sakia.org cause.

Thank you.

Virtual Library Irrigation and Hydrology - latest additions

The WWW Virtual Library Irrigation and Hydrology provides structured access to full text documents, other important information and publications (e.g. reprints) from different origins stored at Sakia.org.

While this section is one of the most frequented sections within Sakia.org (!), additions are very difficult to come by. Receiving reprints or the permission for reprints rely heavily and nearly entirely on strong individual incentives, e.g. from the author(s), on a case to case basis. This seems to be the most effective way in adding and sharing papers! Assuming that just 50% of the recipients of this newsletter would be interested in sharing a paper with the community and could also obtain permission to do so, then the total number of available papers could easily be doubled - please consider. Thank you to the authors for their support.

All papers are fully indexed and are full text searchable.

Frederiksen, H.D., 2005:
The future of rural water services in the developing countries and the governments' role - Irrigation and Drainage, 54, p. 501–508. VL reprint under:
VL Irrigation & Hydrology - vl_ref_id_x_0010 ⁽⁾

Kreith, M., 1991:
Water inputs in California food production. (An excerpt of three charts and the general assumptions section).
Water Education Foundation 717 K Street, Suite 517, Sacramento, CA 95814
VL reprint under:
VL Irrigation & Hydrology - vl_ref_id_x_0011 ⁽⁾

An excerpt of three tables/charts converted from US into metric units
VL Irrigation & Hydrology - vl_ref_id_x_0012 ⁽⁾

Call for reprints

If you would like to share your paper and place it as a reprint in the Virtual Library Irrigation & Hydrology, please check for conditions under “This republishing facility (reprint) is available under the following conditions:” through the link below:
https://www.sakia.org/cms/index.php?id=293 ⁽⁾

VL Irrigation & Hydrology Website @ Sakia.org
https://www.vl-irrigation.org/
https://www.vl-irrigation.org/vl_index

e-Journal of Land Water - first peer reviewed papers published on-line

The ’e-Journal of Land Water’ (ISSN 1832-5149) is an open access and peer reviewed, international scientific journal for research and developments in land and water published by Sakia.org. Articles published in it are available on-line free of charge to the end user. However, please note that Sakia.org holds the unrestricted copyright on all publications. This is to protect the authors’ rights while providing free and unimpeded access to the full text source. Please refer to the ‘copyrights and condition of use’ section for further details which is attached to each publication.

The first two papers published examine the challenges of making surface irrigation systems (furrow, border and basin) more efficient. In these papers, the same basic procedures were applied to the design of various surface irrigation systems, deviating where needed to make the procedures both straightforward and sufficiently accurate. The first paper describes and leads through the theory and presents the relevant equations. The second, a companion paper, provides solution procedures for hand calculation and discussion of how to apply these in a design setting. Three spreadsheets to perform these calculations are part of the second paper and may be downloaded from the eJLW website through the links below.

e-Journal of Land Water (eJLW) articles:

Clemmens, A.J., 2007:
Simple approach to surface irrigation design: Theory
e-Journal of Land and Water, Vol. 1, 1-19.
https:/\/www.sakia.org/ejlw_2007_01_01_i ⁽⁾

Clemmens, A.J., 2007:
Simple approach to surface irrigation design: Spreadsheet applications
e-Journal of Land and Water, Vol. 1, 20-43.
https:/\/www.sakia.org/ejlw_2007_01_02_i ⁽⁾

e-Journal of Land Water main website at Sakia.org
https://www.sakia.org/ejlw/ ⁽⁾

IRRIGATION-L email discussions - overview and latest topics covered

IRRIGATION-L is an e-mail-based discussion list in the field of irrigation theory and practice with the focus on national and international exchange amongst professionals. Subscription is free and to participate in discussions only an e-mail address is needed. However, all postings since 1994 are accessible and searchable on-line through the Sakia.org site.

Some areas more recently covered in postings and discussions (thematically summarised):

Irrigated crops issues (salt tolerance, fertigation, etc.)
Cultural practices for evaporation reduction
Irrigation research worldwide
Porous hoses for subsurface drip
Water quality for drip irrigation
Quality requirements for treated sewage effluent
Water consumption per unit of agricultural product
Design software for pipe networks
Water pressure requirements
Weighing lysimeter
… and more.

IRRIGATION-L Website @ Sakia.org
https://www.irrigation-l.org (website at Sakia.org)
https://www.listserv.dfn.de/sympa/info/irrigation-l ⁽⁾ (website archives and subscription)

Irrigation news

IAA and ANCID merged to a new peak body for the irrigation industry in Australia

The two major irrigation bodies in Australia, the ‘Australian National Committee on Irrigation and Drainage’ (ANCID) and the ‘Irrigation Association of Australia’ (IAA) have merged forming a new peak body for the irrigation industry in Australia called “Irrigation Australia Limited” (IAL). There was a strong support from members of both organisations for the merger clearly recognising that a new and combined force could be more effective and more efficient in serving the entire industry representing irrigation water authorities, delivery companies and both rural and urban irrigation sectors from manufacturers and distributors to end users.

Further information is found on the IAL website under Publications, Backwash e-Newsletter:
https://www.irrigation.org.au/

Sakia.org eNews on-line

All versions of the Sakia.org eNews are accessible through the Sakia.org website. The current version will be added shortly and will be found in the Sakia.org news section under:
https://www.sakia.org/news/ ⁽⁾

Previous and current issues
https://www.sakia.org/e-news_003/ ⁽⁾ [24/10/2007]
https://www.sakia.org/e-news_002/ ⁽⁾ [20/11/2006]
https://www.sakia.org/e-news_001/ ⁽⁾ [01/05/2006]

From the Editor

Dear Sakia.org Members and Supporters,

The analysis of the access statistics of the Sakia.org site has clearly confirmed again the significant demand which exists for core and reliable information as found e.g. in on-line publications and journal papers.

Libraries have always formed one of the major outlets for a range of quality information providing access to widespread knowledge to important groups of scientists and professionals and hence giving access to the valuable journal resources. However, these professionals having structured and physical access to libraries and the journal papers have now become a minority in comparison to those who potentially could, by using more widely available Internet technologies, greatly increase the potential impact that knowledge could have. Shifting knowledge access pathways towards the Internet on one side and reduced funding of publicly accessible ‘classical’ knowledge such as in the form of journals on the other side greatly contributed to this shift.

In addition to the constraints related to funding of knowledge supply and access provided by libraries and institutions there is also a strong regional and structural divide hindering the unimpeded and wide access to journals and papers. Unlike in countries such as Australia, the US and Canada where strong national irrigation and drainage related industries and their associations exist which provide a more widespread basis and funding support to knowledge access for their members, huge irrigated areas exist which are managed, operated and maintained by professionals who cannot afford membership in associations or access to other high quality information. Many government officials have limited funds to even support, much less train, these professionals, a situation which is not expected to change rapidly and which will most likely remain unsatisfactory for many years. However, these regions are especially vulnerable to lack of information and would profit most from freely accessible knowledge.

The question therefore arises on how to improve the knowledge flow and how to increase the impact these key research findings and expertise from the scientific, engineering, environmental and socio-economic community may have. There does not seem to be a single solution, but rather a variety of approaches which could supplement each other. While many large and powerful institutions such as World Bank, FAO, etc. doubtlessly play their role, many valuable and widely used services are still being provided to the professional and science community by many and fairly small initiatives on a zero or close to zero budget line, and many already for a considerable period of time. Especially these smaller initiatives have proven to be very efficient and effective in providing services and knowledge to the professional community, showing greater flexibility and still providing long term stability while having limited institutional overheads to deal with. I hope that future institutional and donor funding profiles and policies will make more provisions for this.

Best regards,

Thomas-M. Stein

Dr Thomas-M. Stein (Sakia.org)
https://www.sakia.org/tms/ ⁽⁾

Editor-in-Chief: Dr Thomas-M. Stein
Send comments to: thomas-manuel.stein(at)sakia.org
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Published on 24 Oct 2007
Last updated on 5 Jun 2026