Using Groundwater Well to Water a Soccer Stadium Grass Pitch

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Hi, I'm looking for some technical advice from anyone who has set up or maintained a sprinkler system for a football stadium where water is sourced from an onsite groundwater production well.

The existing onsite well can deliver approx. 50 m3/day - space is limited at the site so not sure if large storage tanks would be feasible.

Just looking for a ball park figure of how much water is needed on average to water a pitch during the summer months how long would a system run for (hrs).

The site is located in the UK with Annual Average Rainfall being approx 950 mm.

Can the sprinkler system be run directly off the pump (using pump pressure) without using storage?

Thanks, 

Patrick

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9 Answers

  1. Usually the size of a soccer field is 110 m x 70 m i.e 7700 m2. If an average water requirement is considered as 10 liters/m2/day, then total water required would be 77000 liters/day or 77m3. 27m3 more than your well capacity. How would you manage this extra 27m3 of water without a storage tank? 

    Using moisture sensors might resolve this problem because these will allow irrigation only when the moisture contents in the soils reaches wilting point thereby avoiding over irrigation.

  2. Hi,

    I am Fayyaz Hussain working as Contractor for water works ,

    i suggest you that you that your ground area is enough for collecting rain water you make under ground  GRP tanks small size in diffrient area of ground  according to flow of water just collecting tank automatic sprinkler fix there which will be use that water for grass watering, 

    Sprinkler systems take care of watering the landscape so you don't have to. It's a big investment to install one, but having it is like having insurance for your foot ball ground . Your sprinkler will keep the garden alive and lush when you go out of town or when you're just too busy to water by hand.

  3. Say Hello from BKK Thailand. My name is AGGIE Freelance in term of Energy and Environment Consultant. I would share about this issue. Regarding for using ground water 50m3 /day for football field you should khow the hardness of Ground Water(GW) which contains of hardness and can be effect to you sprinkle in term of CaCO3 and ..etc. For my opinion I think rain water is so pure if you collect it to storage tank sizing 4 m Dia Hight 20 m volume of this tank equal 125m3 and if you have 4  that mean you have free of high quality water to use for you task exactly.

    1 Comment

  4. Hi. Patrick.

    At best have a storage tank of a day + capacity . An Acre is 4000sqm . New gras will require 5 lit per 1 sqm grass patch. Well developed say in 3 to 6 mths.. will require 2 lit per sqm.. in summers and 1 lit in winters.. in rainy times ! 

    At the start when well is new there could be silt and sediments coming with water. 

    The sprinklers have spray and jet nozzles can get clogged with debris..etc

    Use organic manure on grass.. or else chmcl frtlzr N:P: K .. can be applied. 

    Feel free to observe the prncpls & prctss  on lawn mngmnt .. on a nearby grass land .. Apply and improve on same. w wshs 

    Prof Ajit Seshadri.

    Vels Univerity.  Chennai . 

  5. Hi

    you should also consider silt/sand separation system. In your case you need small system (closed loop) - sand separating hydrocyclones to avoid any solids particles entering your sprinkler system, which can choke the spray nozzles.

    in case you need more info, please visit our website www,wyunasep.com or feel free to contact me.

     

    regards

    sachin

    +919879011436

  6. Irrigating directly from groundwater is very common, but that's dependent on the nature of the groundwater - both volume available and quality.  Some designs using a storage tank can work out with lower running costs than direct pumping.

    As to flow rates and running times; the design and precipitation rates required as well as the frequency of application is tied to the nature of the turf, usage patterns and especially the climate and soil types. 

    Talk with your local sports turf irrigation specialist for advice. Look for qualified irrigation professionals for the best advice.

  7. Hello Patrick, we are in Australia and for 22 years have supplied our electronic resonance frequency technology to irrigators of ovals, sports clubs and turf farms etc with a groundwater treatment that activates water molecules and keeps all mineral elements such as calcium and magnesium, iron better in suspension so that issues like scale in pipes, sprays heads and chemical compaction in soils, saline water impacts are all mitigated simply with only a 5 watt power draw and no consumables. It goes after the last storage after the pump on the delivery side and will continue to treat all H20 ongoingly for years at no ongoing cost. I included a few items you may find of interest. Please visit www.hydrosmart.com.au or contact me at paul@hydrosmart.com.au for more specific info if you think it relevant.

  8. Hi Patrick

    Can you please provide more info? I might be able to help you.

    1- Peak daily net evap in summer

    2- Summer average daily net evep

    3- The well daily discharge

    4- Your pump capacity (optimum discharge)

    5- The size of the stadium (green cover)

    6- Your sprinkle system design in the field (where are they? how they overlap each other, etc. Better to provide a drawing showing the sprinkle locations)

    7- Your sprinkle type and discharge capacity

    8- Any water quality issue from the groundwater 

    Regards

    Heerbod

     

     

  9. Lets assume you have 5000 m2 of pitch, you want to put down about 2 cm of water each time you irrigate, so you need about 10 m3 of water. You wouldn't water every day in the UK. Your well should give you that 10 m3 in 5 hours at a flow rate of about 2 m3 an hour.

    You should have enough pressure to run sprinklers which will need 2 to 3 bar pressure, though that depends on the particular well pump installed. You should probably include a filter and some form of pressure regulator if pumping direct to spray.

    You would need to size sprinklers to cope with the exact flow. It might be easier to incorporate storage and a second pump to run the sprinklers - which would mean you aren't as constrained to a set of sprinklers that add up to exactly 2 m3 an hour,  and could use lower or higher capacity ones as appropriate.

    1 Comment

    1. Andrew thanks for the advice. The exisiting old system has storage and the sprinklers are fed from from a pressure pump at the tank.I'll look into getting the sprinklers sized for the application.