With a growing and increasingly wealthy and urban population, it is likely that the role of agricultural water management in ensuring food security will become more important. Pressure on water resources is high. Adverse environmental impacts as a result of sometimes poor management of irrigation and drainage are well documented, calling into question the sustainability of some of the current water management practices. Water, food, energy and climate are intrinsically connected. Greater pressure on water resources and, hence, stronger interconnectivity between sectors sharing these resources, call for new, integrated approaches to agricultural water management. This paper explores the links between water, food, energy and climate. It then explores the role of irrigation and drainage in food production and in providing other ecosystem services that are essential for the sustainable use of natural resources. The paper argues that looking at water for food production in isolation would miss important developments outside the water sector that determine the sustainability of agricultural water management. Integrated approaches to food production are not only necessary to ensure sustainability. They also lead to higher benefits per unit of water. For example, integrating food production with other ecosystem services provided by irrigation and drainage not only contributes to sustainability, it also leads to much higher economic value of benefits. This implies breaking disciplinary boundaries and encouraging greater cooperation from planning to implementation. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Drainage should be practiced in conjunction with irrigation to ensure maximum production and for environmental protection in all irrigation projects. An efficient drainage system removes salts added to the soil brought in by irrigation water. Various problems such as the increase in soil salinity, waterlogging, and water table rise into the crop root zone may be encountered when an efficient drainage system has not been provided in an irrigated area. Surface drainage removes excess water accumulated in the cropped area, and excess water and harmful salt solutions in the soil profile are removed by subsurface drainage. In this study, an area of 6,120 ha in the Erzincan irrigation area and where drainage waters are used for irrigation, was chosen for the study. Monthly water samples were taken from two points on surface drainage canals and again two points on drainage outlet of subsurface drainage system during irrigation season. In order to determine the rate of salt removed from soil by surface and subsurface drainage canals, salinity values of drainage waters were determined. In addition, in order to determine the effect of irrigation water on drainage water, water samples were taken from the same points on irrigation canals bringing water to the mentioned areas each month. Although water samples from surface and subsurface canals had high salinity, no water sample from irrigation canals with high salinity was encountered. Two pilot areas of 10 ha under the influence of surface and subsurface drainages were selected and soil samples were taken to determine soil salinity at the end of the irrigation season. In order to compare data taken from two pilot areas, t test was performed using SPSSWIN program. High salinity levels were found in the areas where subsurface drains do not exist, compared to the deeper parts of the same soil profile. Lack of proper drainage system leads to salinity and sodicity in soil. Therefore, to avoid environmental problems, it is very important to ensure proper drainage conditions.

Volume based pricing in irrigation is an important application method in solving excessive and illegal water use problems. It is essential to use a properly selected water meter to accurately measure the amount of water. In this study, the irrigation system performance of Kayack Water User Association (WUA) was comparatively analyzed for the years 2012 to 2017. The prepaid water meter has been used for water measurement in Kayacık irrigation scheme since 2015. While it could be irrigated on 11.754 ha in 2012, the irrigated area reached 19.528 ha in 2017. It was determined that there was a significant water saving and economic recovery after the installation of prepaid water meters in the irrigation scheme. The quantity of water, which was 7,414 m3ha-1 in 2012, decreased to 3,617 m3ha-1 in 2017. The cost recovery ratios were 76% and 107% in 2013 and 2017, respectively. Consequently, prepaid water meter usage provides so many advantages in service delivery, economics and productivity. In addition, the quantity of water discharged into the drainage canal has significantly decreased. It is recommended that prepaid water meter usage should be prevalence in irrigation operation.

Monitoring studies are inevitable in terms of ensuring the sustainability of irrigation, creating of awareness related to environmental impact, interfering and taking of measures if necessary besides efficient using water in irrigation applying. Furthermore, monitoring and evaluation studies are very important from the point of providing a basis for scientific researches on scenarios of climate change, drought, sea level rise in coastal areas by creating numerical analysis models of irrigation operation works. The one of the most important activities of irrigation operation phase is monitoring water table. The objective of this study is to assess the change of water table depth and groundwater salinity for the years 2003, 2008 and 2013. In this study, the data obtained from water table monitoring works in an irrigation project operated is evaluated by using Geographic Information Systems which provide efficient and rapid assessment and recommendations are presented.