A component of the course “Filling the Pipeline: Agricultural Drainage Education to Meet 21st Century Water Management Needs”
Instructor: Dr. Richard Cooke, University of Illinois
Overview: This module discusses quantitative aspects of subsurface drainage design, including drain spacing and depth, developing a layout, determining grades and depth, and pipe sizing. It also introduces the Illini Drainage Tools for facilitating the layout of a drainage system.
Zip file of Module Components
- Contains the Module Outline, PowerPoint, Homework
Learning Objectives:
After completing this module, students will be able to:
- Determine drain spacing and depth to meet various objectives
- Calculate pipe flows and capacity in various situations
- Be familiar with online tools that can be used to make design decision, including the Illini Drainage Tools
Step by Step Guide to Complete the Module:
Watch Video 1: Drainage System Design and Layout
Watch Video 2: Pipe Sizing Tool and Calculating Pipe Flows
Complete the Homework
Watch Video 3: Introduction to the Illini Drainage Tools
Optional Readings
- Designing a subsurface drainage system from the University of Minnesota provides an overview of the design process
- Overview of the Illini Drainage Tools provides further description of the tools presented in Video 3.
- Many other tools are available to help in drainage design. Those developed during the Transforming Drainage Project are available at https://transformingdrainage.org/tools/ and described in the Extension publication “Tools to Inform and Transform Drainage”. Two most useful for drainage design are:
- The Michigan State University Drain Spacing Tool estimates the optimum drain spacing that maximizes economic return on investment in the drainage system.
- The Transforming Drainage Rate Calculators, provided by the Iowa Soybean Association, calculate the drainage intensity, drainage coefficient, and Kirkham coefficient for subsurface drainage systems.
This material is based upon work that is supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture (award number 2018-70003-27661). Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
