Irrigation water requirements 

    The ability to control the water status across a natural turf facility in order to influence playability and maintain grass vigour is an important component of sports turf management.  Therefore the ability to accurately meter and control the quantity of water applied through irrigation is as important as the ability to remove excess water from the pitch profile through drainage.  However, it is not uncommon to observe variations of up to 800 % in the quantity of water applied during ‘uniform’ blanket irrigation events.  Following construction, the performance of irrigation systems is rarely assessed.  This is a relatively straight-forward process which will not only assist in minimising water wastage but will simultaneously optimise turf condition.


Figure 7 Assessment of the uniformity of irrigation application (courtesy of Ipswich Town Football Club, UK)