Ecological design of irrigation and drainage ditches in agricultural land consolidation

Inappropriate design of ditch in agricultural land consolidation can degenerate habitat and affect the stability of agricultural ecosystem. So it is essential to develop ecological design technologies of the irrigation systems to simultaneously maintain irrigation functionality, ecological quality and economic gains. This article illustrates a case study of NADPA in Xiaohu Town of Fujian Province and describes how to develop principles and technological key points of ecological design of irrigational ditches. The result of ecological design of irrigational ditches in NADPA shows that the key to the ecological design of irrigational ditches in agricultural land consolidation is to implement the following ten technological improvements: design of gentle incline, combination of cement concrete and stone, plate molding concrete revetment, ecological cavern settings, deep groove, compound cross section, half-ecological concrete ditches, GCL ditches, modified impermeable concrete block ditches with vegetation form, animal escaping slope and design of frog nursing. In addition, the ecological design of ditches must give attention to both water conveyance efficiency and ecological functions, take consideration of nursing of frogs and other animals when the depth of ditch reach 1 meter and side slopes are vertical, and set stepped eco-plates to build animal escaping slopes. Evaluation of this project shows that ecological design of ditches has favorable quality in terms of ecology, economy and social continuity