Agricultural water management becomes increasingly important in the presence of low water supplies because it is usually when consumption by agricultural operations is examined more closely by their respective communities. When agricultural operations are able to incorporate more efficient methods of using water, a greater quantity of drinking water is made available for use by the community at large.
A properly designed and managed system has the potential to produce zero-discharge to streams, thus helping to improve water quality and reduce peak flows downstream.
Wetland Reservoir Subirrigation Systems (WRSIS) link a constructed wetland to a water supply reservoir through a network of subsurface drainage pipes that can be used to
both drain and irrigate the plant root zone. The new agricultural water management system is under demonstration and evaluation for its ability to both restore wetland habitat and function, improve water quality, reduce off-site impacts, and maintain agricultural drainage, productivity, and profitability.