Evaluation of risk in canal irrigation systems due to non-maintenance using Fuzzy Fault Tree approach

The safety and performance of many existing irrigation systems could be improved by doing the preventive maintenance activities. Modeling canal irrigation systems in terms of condition and performance that can be directly correlated with particular canal system maintenance activities. There are two categories of scheduled maintenance activity in irrigation maintenance systems: maintenance may be targeted towards restoring deliveries ("Restorative maintenance"), or towards reducing the risk of failures ("Preventative maintenance"). This paper covers the latter kind of maintenance scheduling by 'Risk Analysis'. The purpose of this risk analysis is to forecast the impact of preventative maintenance on deliveries from the main channel systems. After gaining the experience from the preliminary risk analysis through questionnaire based survey and failure history of past record, a 'Fuzzy Fault Tree (FFT)' method is developed for the rapid risk assessment and it is necessitated for the irrigation system manager/engineer. 'Risk Analysis' of irrigation systems from the point of view of maintenance is studied and applied to the Tirunelveli Channel Systems located in India. The effectiveness is calculated for each preventative maintenance tasks and it is ranked according to the Effectiveness/Cost ratio.