Here is a list of best free irrigation design software for Windows. These software help in various aspects of irrigation, crop harvesting, water conservation, irrigation equipment selection, analysis of soil, analysis of crop, etc. Each of these software is slightly different from each other as some are specialized in water harvesting, some in irrigation system equipment selection, and some in surface irrigation. A few of these software also help you find out various soil and crop properties like salinity, root depth of crop, water fraction, drain water, etc. Overall, all of these software help in irrigation designing in one way or another.
Talking about working, these software are quite straightforward. For example, to select the right irrigation equipment for irrigation, you need to specify your requirements to the software. You can specify irrigation requirements like section length, section slope, number of outlets, total, flow, etc. By taking your requirements into account, the software will suggest you all the right pieces of equipment. Through some of these software, you can also estimate the right amount of water your crops will need in a period of time. To estimate water requirements, you need to enter data like location of your field, temperature, rain data of various months, etc. After the analysis of input values, the software will give you water usage results. The estimation of water requirements also help you conserve the water resources.
The good thing about most of these software is that they not only provide results in numerical form but also in visual forms (graphs, charts, etc.). Plus, it is also quite easy to save results in formats like BMP, PDF, WMF, etc. Go through the list to know more about these software.
My Favorite Irrigation Design Software For Windows:
CROPWAT is my favorite software because it lets you estimate the water requirements for your fields which is really importnat in irrigation. Plus, it helps you conserve the water resources.
NaanDan Jain Irrigation System Software is another good irrigation design software that you can try. You can use this software if you want to select the right set of irrigation equipments as per your requirements.
CROPWAT
CROPWAT is a free irrigation design software for Windows. It is an advanced irrigation design software through which you can calculate the water requirements for crops during and after the rainy season, calculate irrigation requirements according to the type of soil, and calculate climate and crop data. Plus, it allows you to create a schedule for the irrigation according to different water supply and crop patterns. To perform all the essential calculations for irrigation, this software comes with various sections.
Main Sections:
- Climate/ETo: Using it, you can calculate the amount of water used by your fields in a month. To do that, you need to first specify the altitude, latitude, and longitude values of your field. After that, specify the minimum temperature, maximum temperature, humidity, wind, and sun hours value of every month. According to the entered values, this software will provide values showing the amount of water your field will need in different months.
- Rain: Using it, you can find out the effective rain required by your fields in different months according to previous years rain data.
- CWR: CWR or Crop Water Requirement module is used to calculate the amount of water a particular type of crop with a specific type of soil needed. Before using this module, you need to enter the Soil and Rain data in Soil and Rain modules.
- Schedule: This module shows all the important data like rain pattern, irrigation efficiency, total gross irrigation, feasibility of supplementary irrigation, and more, which you can use to plan the planting and harvesting date of your crops.
- Cropping Pattern: Using it, you enter and manage cropping pattern (planting and harvesting dates) of different crops.
Additional Feature:
- Charts: This feature lets you generate rain charts, climate charts, irrigation schedule charts, etc., which you can save in BMP and Metafile formats.
Final Thoughts:
It is one of the most comprehensive irrigation design software through which you can calculate various irrigation design parameters.
NaanDan Jain Irrigation System Software (NAANCAT)
NaanDan Jain Irrigation System Software (NAANCAT) is another free irrigation design software for Windows. This software helps you find the right pieces of equipment for your irrigation system like pipe, sprinklers, button drippers, drip tapes, and more. To suggest the right set of equipment, this software asks your requirements and then suggests you the best set of equipment of a particular category that you can use in irrigation.
In this software, you get three main modules through which you can choose the right set of irrigation equipment namely Main/ Submain, Define Irrigation Requirements, and Products.
Main Modules:`
- Main/Submain: Through this module, you can perform the hydraulics analysis according to which, you can select the right pipe for your irrigation system. To do that, you need to specify your requirements like pipe friction parameter, section length, section slope, number of outlets, total, flow, etc. After that, specify the pipe material and class of pipe you want and then press the Run button to see the head loss curve graph. Using the graph, you can determine the type and material of the pipe you want for the irrigation. You can save the output graph in the BMP image format.
- Define Irrigation Requirements: Using it, you can find the right sprinklers for both Open field and Tunnels greenhouse field. To do that, you need to first specify your requirements like the distance between sprinklers, distance between pipes, precipitation (mm/hr), etc. After that, click on the Search button to get a list of all possible sprinklers which are meeting your requirements.
- Products: In this section, you get a lot of NaanDanJain irrigation products like Sprinklers, Drip Irrigation, MicroSprinklers, etc., with images. By selecting any irrigation product, you can run a hydraulics analysis on it by specifying parameters like specifying pressure (in bar), spacing, wall thickness, etc. In the output, you get lateral hydraulics analysis graph and various values which you can save in Excel and PDF formats.
Final Thoughts:
It is a really good irrigation design software if you want to select all the right pieces of equipment according to your irrigation requirements.
IrriPro
IrriPro is a free irrigation design software for Windows, Linux, and macOS. It facilitates you with the tools to design an irrigation system for a piece of land you own or for a real world project. You can think of this software as a CAD program to plan an irrigation system for almost any kind of land. It lets you make a design and after that, lets you include water system segments like valves, channels, showers, joints, and so forth., in it. The irrigation plan that you make in it can be exported in many formats, however, an image and DXF are the only options in the free version.
If you are going to set up a lawn or garden near you or you are getting ready for a nursery, at that point, you will initially need to deal with the water system management. In spite of the fact that you can do that physically, yet for accuracy and polished methodology, you can draw a water system plan. And this software here, IrriPro will support you. All you need is a little technical knowledge of irrigation systems and you are all good to get started with it.
Main Features:
- It has availability of almost all the irrigation components like valves, pipes, joints, etc., in the database.
- It lets you design an irrigation system for any kind of land irrespective of its shape.
- You can estimate the overall cost of the whole irrigation system that you have designed.
- It lets you use a cartographic image for the design (survey with Google Maps or CAD file).
- It has a user-friendly interface with so many options available for irrigation system engineers for calculating the water flow, area of the land, visualizing the water pressure and flow in 3D space, and much more.
- It can show a thematic map to identify areas of malfunctions with excess or lack of water. Also, characteristic of the emitter can be explicitly specified.
Limitations:
- Unavailability of some really useful export formats other than image or DXF.
- Not meant for newbies or naive irrigation engineers.
- Can hang on average computer systems; use it on a PC with good hardware configuration.
Final Thoughts:
Even though the makers have left out some features from the free version, it is still one of the most powerful irrigation system designers you can use today. It is best suited for professional irrigation engineers. Newbies can utilize the quick start guide available on the main website.
WaSim
WaSim is the next free irrigation design software for Windows. It is mainly a training program through which you can manage and solve irrigation, drainage, and salinity issues. Plus, it also helps you estimate crop harvesting time, root depth of crop, water fraction, drain water, etc., values of different time periods. It also offers a visual representation showing field capacity, salinity in field, moisture content, and other field and irrigation parameters. In order to obtain all the important irrigation related and crop-related values, you need to first enter a set of input data status and then run the analyses model.
Main Features:
- Input Data Status: In it, you need to enter all the required input data like Soil Data, Drainage Data, Climate Data, Crop Data, Irrigation Crop Type, Date (two dates between which you want to run the analysis), etc. After submitting all the data, go to the Analysis tab and press the Run button to start the analysis process.
- Analysis Model: Analysis process opens up in the Analysis Model window. The whole analysis model window is basically divided into three main parts namely Visual Representation, Control, and Results. In visual representation, you can view change in crop cover, depth of roots, field capacity, water table, salinity, and other values according to the change in time. The Control section lets you play/pause and increase or decrease the speed of simulation. In the results section, you can view values related to crop, root depth, rainfall, soil profile, saturation, etc. You can save the final results in Results File (.drr).
Final Thoughts:
It is a really good irrigation design software through which you can estimate and obtain various important data related to irrigation and crop.
Surdev
Surdev is yet another free irrigation design software for Windows. This software is used for the designing, operation, and evaluation of three types of surface irrigation namely Basin, Furrow, and Border. To handle calculations for different surface irrigation methods, it offers dedicated modules namely Basdev (for basin irrigation), Bordev (for border irrigation), and Furdev (for furrow irrigation). Through available modules, you can calculate various irrigation parameters like water flow rate, cutoff time, minimum depth, fix flow, cutback flow, etc.
In this software, you cannot directly enter values for the calculation, hence you can use predefined .bor, .fur, and .bas files and change their default values according to your need and perform required calculations.
Main Modules:
- Basdev: In this module, you can enter field parameters (SCS, flow resistance, required depth) and input decision variables (basin length, flow rate, basin width, cutoff time) to find out irrigation performance output data such as minimum infiltrated depth, over-irrigation length, under irrigation length, recession time, etc. You can save the obtained output values in .bas file.
- Bordev: It is just like Basdev, but it uses one extra field parameter (Slope value) and slightly different Input decision variables (flow rate, border length, border width). In the output, it provides important irrigation values like runoff ratio, cutoff time, depletion time, opportunity time, surface runoff, etc. By pressing the save button, you can save the output values in a .bor file.
- Furdev: It is also similar to the other two modules as it uses similar Field Parameters (required depth, maximum velocity, slope, spacing, etc.) and input decision variables (flow rate, length, and cutoff time) to calculate important irrigation values. After entering the values, press the Calculate button to find out results like application efficiency, storage efficiency, advance time, opportunity time, and more. The final output data can be saved in .fur file.
Additional Feature:
- Graph: In all three modules of this software, you can generate advanced curve vs time and infiltration profile vs depth graphs after performing the calculations. Plus, it is also quite easy to export the graphs in BMP, EMF, and WMF files.
Final Thoughts:
It is another decent irrigation design software through which you can find important irrigation parameters for three different types of surface irrigation methods.
Water Balance
Water Balance is one more free irrigation design software for Windows. This software is primarily used to minimize water usage in order to converse water resources. However, it also comes in handy to estimate the right amount of water your fields need in different months. To estimate the amount of water your fields need, you need to specify some parameters in this software like Site Characteristics, Crop Coefficients of each month, Available Water, etc. According to the entered data, it gives you various output graphs as results which you can save in PDF format.
Main Features:
- Site Characteristics: You need to enter various site characteristics parameters to this software to get the accurate results. In this section, you need to specify water holding capacity, rainfall source, potential evapotranspiration source, irrigation strategy (25mm/week, 50 mm/week. etc.), and amount of available water on a specific date.
- Crop Coefficients: It is a property of plants which is used in predicting the evapotranspiration. It is another set of important input parameter which you need to provide to this software of all months.
- Output Graphs: In the output, this software provides a lot of graphs showing cumulative drainage, daily drainage, daily irrigation, daily potential evapotranspiration, etc. Apart from graphs, this software also offers values like monthly irrigation, monthly irrigation, monthly drainage, etc.
Final Thoughts:
It is another good irrigation design software through which you can estimate the right amount of water needed by your crops by using output graphs and values.
Note: You need to have Java in your system to run this software.
Wetup
Wetup is another one of free irrigation design software for Windows. Through this software, you can estimate the wetting pattern of dippers, in order to improve the water and nutrient efficiency given to a field. The good thing about this software is that it shows the visual representation of water penetration in the field. At a time, you can run two separate simulations to find water penetration in a field using different input parameters.
How to find water penetration in the field using this irrigation design software:
- Launch this software and specify a soil type (silt loam, loam, sand, flagstone, etc.) using the Soil type menu.
- After that, specify the water flow rate (per hour) and time (in hours) for which the water is continuously flowing.
- Next, specify the Emitter Type (surface or buried water emitter) and Initial Water Conditions (dry, moist, or wet).
- Lastly, press the Run button to view the water penetration graph. On the graph, you can also view the depth of water penetration after every hour.
You can save the output graph in PDF file format.
Final Thoughts:
It is simple to use irrigation design software through which you can find out the area of water penetration in your field.