الملخص الإنجليزي
Computerized systems, with sophisticated Graphical-User-Interface (GUI), are often tools used by society to bridge the research's theoretical outcomes with the real-life application. Integration of the GUI with the application of a pressurized irrigation system helps to utilize the water in a more efficient manner. The literature reviews covered three steps in the software of irrigation system designing: pre-design features, designing, and supporting the design. The software programs that provide the most features of designing steps are costly and require annual renewal fees. In Oman, AutoCAD software is widely used for engineering designs with a manual calculation of parameters, which consume a lot of time and efforts. Hence, this project concentrated on developing a new integrated software named Auto- IQS-LAWR Package, which stands for Auto Irrigation Quantity Survey Landscape Agriculture Water Requirement. Thus, the aim of this study was to develop a new computer model in AutoCAD software for designing a complete pressurized irrigation system and assisting the quantity surveyor to minimize efforts, save time and money. The specific objectives were to integrate AutoCAD 2010 (and above version), Visual-Basic Application 7.1 and MS- Excel for calculating both the total water requirement of the designed landscape/agriculture and the required irrigation items (quantity survey). Moreover, other specific objectives of the study were to test and validate the developed package. The developed package consists of three components. First, the template file was created with named layers and blocks in two independent legends: Landscape/Agriculture and irrigation items. Second, an Auto Landscape/Agriculture Water Requirement (Auto-LAWR) macro was developed in VBA to calculate the plants' water requirement, which is based on the published manual from Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (2009). Third, an Auto Irrigation Quantity Survey (Auto-IQS) macro was developed in VBA for irrigation system design to quantity survey of the items and calculate hydraulic parameters. The developed macros have the ability to export the outcomes to the MS Excel file. Irrigation engineer users tested the developed Package for its capability. Though, a real comparison of an existing irrigation system design projects with or without the use of the package. Results revealed that the package savings of time, efforts and money with a comparison in buying new irrigation software. The User Satisfaction Survey revealed 98% user's satisfaction and 100% of the users expressed the importance of the package. The developed package will be an important tool transforming the current tedious and expensive process of designing pressurized irrigation systems into cost-effective with less time and fewer effort requirements in a more efficient manner.
