Water conservation around homes : the role of audit in improving irrigation system performance

A methodology for an audit of irrigation systems, originally developed for public open spaces and commercial landscape irrigation systems was used in this study of residential irrigation systems at 50 home sites in the Sydney Metropolitan area, Australia. The audit aimed to evaluate the influence of the irrigation system on water use efficiency, rather than the management or operation of the system. The audit identified design, installation and maintenance issues, evaluated system performance and identified opportunities for improving water use efficiency. The study highlighted that there are relatively few well-designed systems in operation, that a typical homeowner has limited knowledge of how to design and manage an irrigation system, and that the maintenance of systems is usually forgotten. Overall, the irrigation system audit can be a useful tool in identifying irrigation system faults and issues that impact on the effectiveness of outdoor home watering. A modified audit process, involving a checklist of the systems,would yield useful information for homeowners, particularly if it contained information on what was working, what was not working and recommendations on what needed to be fixed up or improved.