Establishment and application of comprehensive evaluation model for water-saving development level of irrigation management in Sichuan province

Abstract: The evaluation of the water-saving development level of irrigation management is an important foundation to make water-saving irrigation development plan in a region. This paper established a comprehensive evaluation system for the development level of water-saving irrigation management, including 4 levels and 16 indicators of water use management, engineering management, organization management and business management, and built a comprehensive evaluation model of the water-saving development level of irrigation management at the basis of approaching the ideal solution. Furthermore, the entropy method and analytic hierarchy process were introduced to calculate the weight of each evaluation index, which improved science and objectivity to determine the weights. Taking 21 regions in Sichuan Province as the research object, the weights were determined and the weighted decision matrix was established by forming a decision matrix using the model, and the relative similarity degree of each evaluation object and the ideal solution were calculated, then the water-saving development level of irrigation management of different regions in Sichuan Province was obtained by using the relative similarity degree. The result shows Sichuan Province's water-saving development level of irrigation management evaluation is "normal", and water-saving development level of irrigation management in each region is consistent with its situation of economic development, participation of water users, and intensity of reform promotion. So，the most developed regions, such as Chengdu, Deyang are "good"; Panzhihua, Mianyang, Ziyang and Leishan in a "relatively good" level; Zigong etc. in "normal" level; Guangyuan and Neijiang in a "relative poor" level, and the least developed regions: Ganzi, Aba and Liangshan in a "very poor" level. The results are accord with Sichuan Province's actual situation of the water-saving development of irrigation management. Therefore, the model has a strong practicality to evaluate the water-saving development of irrigation management in different regions in Sichuan province. Finally some policies are put forward to according to the evaluation results. This research can optimize allocation of agricultural water resources and provide references for water saving irrigation management.