1. Research in the Irrigation Industry The Rubicon Water University of Melbourne Relationship Tony Oakes Rubicon Water 7 September 2015

2. Irrigated Agriculture accounts for 70 percent of freshwater use Source: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Competing total freshwater use – global The world irrigates 275 million hectares of which Australia represents less than 1% A substantial amount of this water is delivered using open channel irrigation systems The poor efficiency of many of these systems leads to sizeable water losses Rubicon’s technology targets these losses by improving the efficiency of channel systems With supply of freshwater set to be 40% below demand by 2030 1, cost-effective solutions are required to bridge the gap Rubicon’s technology can significantly improve the efficiency of irrigation systems without the costs associated with pipelining 1 Source: 2030 Water Resources Group

3. Dam Canal Farm Plant Typical efficiency levels through an irrigation system Dam to farm gate  operating spills  poor measurement  leaks  seepage  evaporation Use by plant  imprecise timing  no measurement of crop needs Farm gate to crop  poor service  slow delivery  varying flows  poor control 70% 37% 49% Only 37% of diverted water is used by the plant The largest losses are during transportation of water and of those the largest is due to outfalls (spills) which are the result of management practices. Source: SKM 2000 and Cardno 2010 and UNESCO World Water Development Report 2009

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5. 5 The Irrigation Channel Regulation Problem Traditional manually operated irrigation systems are hard to regulate because It is difficult to measure flow accurately A human operator can only be at one place at a time There is a long “transport” delay in the movement of water through a channel Operators do not have an accurate quantitative understanding of the dynamics of this “delayed” water movement

6. 6 The Solution Development Initiation of research relationship with the University of Melbourne (1998) Breakthrough modelling and control techniques piloted (2002) Product refinement and further improvements post pilots Commitment by Coleambally Irrigation to automate entire system (2005) Major commitments to reform Victorian systems (2007) Global interest in solution

7. Benefits - Coleambally Irrigation Case study A farmer owned co-operative - investment started in 2002 with a Pilot system System modernisation completed in July 2014 Total expenditure A$40 million Annual Savings 60,000 ML Improved service to farmers – 2 hours to order water and it is automatically delivered Significant labour and fuel savings Distribution Efficiency up to 95% (dependant on total deliveries but system losses now relatively fixed at 25,000 ML Equipment Installed Software and communications system 500 in channel regulator gates 534 automated farm meters

8. Thank you