Large-Scale Irrigation Infrastructure and Canal Automation in Marrakech

Programme Overview

Large-scale agricultural production relies heavily on the reliability, hydraulic performance, and efficiency of conveyance infrastructure.⁣​‌​‌​​‌​​‌‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌‌​​‌​​​‌​‌‌‌​​​‌‌​​​‌​‌‌‌‌​​​​‌‌​‌​‌​⁣ This five-day executive course in Marrakech delivers technical and managerial expertise in conveyance design, canal automation, and control systems. Operating in arid and semi-arid conditions requires balancing conveyance losses, managing sedimentation loads, and ensuring equitable bulk allocation. Participants study hydrodynamic modelling principles, sensor-driven control systems, and robust infrastructure maintenance regimes to upgrade primary, secondary, and tertiary canal networks according to international engineering standards.

The programme integrates engineering fundamentals with participatory institutional frameworks necessary for long-term scheme viability. Sustainable performance demands more than mechanical modernisation; it requires robust water accounting, institutional structuring, and consistent financial recovery mechanisms. Delegates will analyse hydraulic regulation strategies alongside Water User Association governance and bulk water pricing structures. The curriculum focuses on building resilient operational protocols that minimise operational spill, protect earthen and lined channels, and coordinate multi-tiered distribution networks serving commercial and smallholder agricultural producers.

Marrakech provides an exceptional operational backdrop for water professionals, showcasing advanced gravity distribution, automated perimeter controls, and pressured network conversions under conditions of acute water scarcity. Through practical design exercises, international case reviews, and control simulation analyses, participants gain the technical capacity to formulate engineering interventions, evaluate control architecture specifications, and supervise infrastructure rehabilitations. This training prepares public sector engineers and scheme managers to direct comprehensive irrigation modernisation schemes funded by international development finance institutions.

Agricultural resilience across Central and West Africa increasingly depends on revitalising large public perimeters to guarantee food security and climate adaptation.⁣​‌​‌​​‌​​‌‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌‌​​‌​​​‌​‌‌‌​​​‌‌​​​‌​‌‌‌‌​​​​‌‌​‌​‌​⁣ Strategic investments in major river basins, such as those targeting the Valley of the Logone and the Benue River, require public sector agencies to execute complex civil works, sediment extraction, and automated control upgrades. Modernising bulk conveyance through robust hydraulic control and transparent water accounting prevents costly asset degradation and ensures water delivers equitably to downstream command areas. Developing technical competency in canal design, automated regulation, and institutional management is therefore critical for the successful delivery and operational survival of these large-scale investments.

Delivered by Risalat Consultants International in Marrakech, Morocco, it combines expert-led sessions, real cases and group work, so that participants can apply what they learn in their own institution.

The Programme Strengthens Institutional Capability

• Hydraulics of open channels: Manning-Strickler formulations and geometric cross-section optimisation
• Design parameters for unlined earthen channels, geotextile barriers, and concrete linings
• Water surface profile calculations and managing backwater effects in stepped irrigation networks
• Design and calibration of hydraulic measurement structures: flumes, broad-crested weirs, and baffled outlets
• Practical design session: Sizing secondary conveyance canals under varying crop demand scenarios
• River intake design: Barrage diversion structures, skimming weirs, and lateral intake geometry
• Sediment transport mechanics in alluvial rivers and perimeter siltation vulnerability
• Design and operation of vortex extractors, settling basins, and desilting flush gates
• Infrastructure planning and prioritisation
• Project appraisal and business cases
• Financing options and public-private partnerships
• Procurement and contracting for works

It is designed for irrigation and drainage engineers from public water agencies and ministries, scheme operations directors and perimeter maintenance managers, civil engineers responsible for canal design and hydraulic structures and others who want practical, current skills in infrastructure, urban development and partnerships.

The Growing Importance of Large-Scale Irrigation Infrastructure and Canal Automation in Marrakech

Infrastructure and urban services shape growth, health and opportunity. Projects are large, complex and long-lived, and weaknesses in planning, financing or delivery are costly to fix later.

Governments increasingly combine public investment, partnerships with the private sector and new technologies. Teams who can plan, appraise, procure and manage these investments deliver better assets and services.

Organisations increasingly require professionals capable of:

• Plan and prioritise infrastructure investments
• Appraise projects and prepare business cases
• Choose financing and delivery models
• Supervise works for time, cost and quality
• Manage assets over their life

Strong infrastructure, urban development and partnerships systems help organisations:

• Select the right investments
• Deliver projects on time and on budget
• Attract financing and partners
• Keep assets working for longer

This Large-Scale Irrigation Infrastructure and Canal Automation in Marrakech programme brings these elements together in a practical format, so that participants understand not only what good practice looks like but also how to introduce it in their own setting, with the people and resources they have.

Who Should Attend This Large-Scale Irrigation Infrastructure and Canal Automation in Marrakech Training?

This programme is designed for:

• Irrigation and drainage engineers from public water agencies and ministries
• Scheme operations directors and perimeter maintenance managers
• Civil engineers responsible for canal design and hydraulic structures
• Hydrologists and water accounting specialists in river basin authorities
• Project coordinators managing donor-funded agricultural water operations
• Supervising engineers managing canal rehabilitation and civil contracts
• Institutional officers coordinating Water User Associations and federations
• Operations supervisors managing barrage intakes, silt ejectors, and headworks
• Technical officers responsible for bulk water tariff recovery and metering
• Infrastructure and urban planners
• Engineers and technical managers
• Project and programme managers

The programme suits experienced professionals as well as those moving into new responsibilities. Groups that mix institutions and countries are encouraged, because participants learn a great deal from each other’s experience.

Large-Scale Irrigation Infrastructure and Canal Automation in Marrakech Training Objectives

Upon successful completion of this Large-Scale Irrigation Infrastructure and Canal Automation in Marrakech Training, participants will be able to:

• Evaluate steady and unsteady open-channel flow hydraulics using standard design formulae and friction parameters
• Specify automated canal control configurations including downstream, upstream, and centralised supervisory architectures
• Design sediment exclusion, settling basins, and intake regulation systems to prevent perimeter siltation
• Formulate scheme-level water balance calculations aligned with FAO standards for irrigation demand and conveyance efficiency
• Structure Water User Association operational bylaws, turnover agreements, and inclusive bulk governance arrangements
• Establish cost-reflective bulk water tariff structures and billing protocols to improve scheme cost recovery
• Develop systematic preventative maintenance regimes for earthen, concrete-lined, and automated canal networks
• Explain how infrastructure is planned and prioritised
• Appraise projects and prepare a business case
• Compare financing and delivery models, including partnerships

Each objective is practised during the programme through exercises, cases or group work, so that participants leave able to do it, not only to describe it.

Programme Contents and Structure

The programme runs over 5 days. Each day combines expert input, practical work and a closing workshop or case study:

• First Day: Open-Channel Hydraulics and Canal Design Principles
• Second Day: Headworks, Intake Engineering, and Sediment Management
• Third Day: Canal Modernisation and Automated Flow Control Systems
• Fourth Day: Water Accounting, Monitoring, and Conveyance Efficiency
• Fifth Day: Institutional Governance, Asset Management, and Tariff Recovery

Full day-by-day contents

First Day | Open-Channel Hydraulics and Canal Design Principles

• Hydraulics of open channels: Manning-Strickler formulations and geometric cross-section optimisation
• Design parameters for unlined earthen channels, geotextile barriers, and concrete linings
• Water surface profile calculations and managing backwater effects in stepped irrigation networks
• Design and calibration of hydraulic measurement structures: flumes, broad-crested weirs, and baffled outlets
• Practical design session: Sizing secondary conveyance canals under varying crop demand scenarios

Workshop: Open-Channel Hydraulics and Canal Design Principles: Applying It to Your Institution

Working in small groups, participants apply the day's methods to examples from their own institutions and agree practical next steps.

Second Day | Headworks, Intake Engineering, and Sediment Management

• River intake design: Barrage diversion structures, skimming weirs, and lateral intake geometry
• Sediment transport mechanics in alluvial rivers and perimeter siltation vulnerability
• Design and operation of vortex extractors, settling basins, and desilting flush gates
• Intake protection works, trash rack design, and mechanical screen deployment
• Field assessment methodology: Diagnosing canal bank scouring, bed siltation, and structural settlement

Workshop: Headworks, Intake Engineering, and Sediment Management: Applying It to Your Institution

Working in small groups, participants apply the day's methods to examples from their own institutions and agree practical next steps.

Third Day | Canal Modernisation and Automated Flow Control Systems

• Classification of canal control: Upstream, downstream, bivalent, and EL-FLO automated gate systems
• SCADA implementation in open canals: Flow sensors, ultrasonic level gauges, and remote telemetry units
• Electro-mechanical gate automation: Radial, undershot sluice, and modular self-regulating gates
• Hydrodynamic canal network simulation principles for transient flow and operational spill reduction
• Simulation workshop: Evaluating gate response times and downstream canal water level stability

Case Study: Canal Modernisation and Automated Flow Control Systems in Practice

Participants analyse a realistic case, compare the choices made with good practice and draw lessons they can use in their own setting.

Fourth Day | Water Accounting, Monitoring, and Conveyance Efficiency

• System-level water balance frameworks: Inflows, transmission losses, seepages, and crop evapotranspiration
• FAO-56 evapotranspiration methodologies applied to perimeter bulk delivery scheduling
• Operational loss auditing: Inflow-outflow method, ponding tests, and acoustic Doppler current profiling
• Conveyance and distribution efficiency indicators aligned with donor monitoring frameworks
• Practical exercise: Establishing a scheme-wide water balance model using operational field data

Workshop: Water Accounting, Monitoring, and Conveyance Efficiency: Applying It to Your Institution

Working in small groups, participants apply the day's methods to examples from their own institutions and agree practical next steps.

Fifth Day | Institutional Governance, Asset Management, and Tariff Recovery

• Water User Association governance: Legal foundations, joint management, and tertiary network turnover
• Designing operation and maintenance tariff structures: Volumetric pricing, flat fees, and recovery systems
• Preventative maintenance planning: Embankment stabilising, concrete desilting schedules, and gate rehabilitation
• Contractual frameworks and supervision standards for civil works in public irrigation schemes
• Participant action plan clinic: Drafting operational upgrade roadmaps for target irrigation perimeters

Capstone Exercise: Large-Scale Irrigation Infrastructure and Canal Automation in Marrakech Action Plan for Your Institution

Participants bring the week together in an action plan for their own institution, with priorities, owners and first steps, and present it for feedback from peers and facilitators.

Large-Scale Irrigation Infrastructure and Canal Automation in Marrakech Training Methodology

The training employs interactive technical presentations, empirical hydraulic calculations, and software-supported simulation reviews.⁣​‌​‌​​‌​​‌‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌‌​​‌​​​‌​‌‌‌​​​‌‌​​​‌​‌‌‌‌​​​​‌‌​‌​‌​⁣ Daily sessions link engineering theory directly to real-world infrastructure challenges via case analysis of major river basin projects. Participants work in peer review syndicates to evaluate hydraulic designs, draft operations and maintenance matrices, and configure canal regulation workflows. Each participant compiles a context-specific scheme modernisation roadmap addressing design, automation, institutional governance, and financial recovery for their home perimeter.

The programme combines:

• Expert-led sessions on current practice
• Regional and international case studies
• Group work and practical exercises
• Simulations and role plays where relevant
• Discussion of participants' own challenges
• Peer learning across institutions and countries
• Practical tools and templates to take back to work
• Daily reflection and action planning

Before the programme, a short pre-assessment helps the facilitators understand each participant’s role and priorities, so that examples and exercises can be adjusted to the group. Each day ends with a short reflection in which participants note what they will apply at work.

Expected Outcomes

Upon completion of this Large-Scale Irrigation Infrastructure and Canal Automation in Marrakech Training, participants will be able to:

• Accurately calculate hydraulic profiles and dimensions for primary, secondary, and tertiary open channels
• Specify and select electro-mechanical gates, level sensors, and automated control modes for canal perimeters
• Produce engineering designs for intake sediment traps, settling basins, and hydraulic control structures
• Audit perimeter conveyance losses and construct defensible scheme-level water balance accounts
• Draft robust operation, maintenance, and asset management plans for concrete and earthen networks
• Structure viable Water User Association service contracts and revenue-positive bulk water tariff systems
• Plan and prioritise infrastructure investments
• Appraise projects and prepare business cases

Participants leave with a personal action plan and practical tools they can use in their institution from the first week back. Institutions that send several participants can use the programme to agree shared methods and templates across teams, which makes improvements easier to sustain.

Institutional Application of Large-Scale Irrigation Infrastructure and Canal Automation in Marrakech Training

This programme supports organisations in strengthening:

• Investment planning
• Project appraisal
• Partnership management
• Works supervision
• Asset management

Participants return with practical tools to improve:

• Business cases
• Risk allocation
• Contract management
• Maintenance planning
• Service monitoring

The programme is built so that learning moves from the classroom into the institution. Participants work on their own processes and documents where possible, and leave with an action plan that their managers can review and support.

Regional Relevance & Application

Europe

European institutions apply infrastructure, urban development and partnerships within detailed regulatory frameworks and reform agendas. Participants from Europe can compare their practice with colleagues from other regions and test how established methods work under different conditions.

Africa

Across Africa, ministries, agencies and project teams working in infrastructure, urban development and partnerships increasingly operate alongside donor-financed programmes that expect clear systems and evidence. The programme helps participants adapt good practice to the institutions and resources they work with.

Middle East

In the Middle East, national development strategies and diversification plans place growing demands on infrastructure, urban development and partnerships. Participants explore how to build the capability these plans need inside public bodies and companies.

Asia

Institutions across Asia combine rapid growth with ambitious modernisation programmes. Participants from Asia can share their experience of scaling systems quickly and learn from approaches used elsewhere.

Pacific

Small island and Pacific states face particular constraints of size, distance and capacity. The programme highlights practical, proportionate approaches to infrastructure, urban development and partnerships that suit smaller institutions.

Holding the programme in Marrakech, Morocco brings participants together away from their daily pressures, so they can compare how infrastructure, urban development and partnerships is handled in different settings. The same programme can also be delivered in-house for one institution, in its own country or online, with cases taken from its current work.

Host Country Profile – Morocco

Training programmes in Marrakech are suited to public sector governance, infrastructure planning, tourism management, and regional development. The location attracts participants from North Africa, West Africa, and the Middle East seeking practical operational exposure within a regional hub.

Studying away from their own country gives participants time to focus, a fresh view of their own institution and the chance to build a network with colleagues from other countries.

Large-Scale Irrigation Infrastructure and Canal Automation in Marrakech Training Deliverables

Participants receive support before, during and after the programme, so that preparation, learning and follow-up form one continuous experience.

Before the Programme

• Participant Pre-Assessment
• Large-Scale Irrigation Infrastructure and Canal Automation in Marrakech Readiness Assessment
• Large-Scale Irrigation Infrastructure and Canal Automation in Marrakech Resource Pack
• Preparatory Reading Materials
• Complimentary Visa Support & Advisory

During the Programme

• Airport Pickup & Welcome Assistance
• Accommodation with Breakfast
• Welcome Networking Dinner
• Risalat Training Kit (Bag, Bottle, Mug, T-Shirt, Cap, Passport Cover, Pens, Notebook, Magnet & Keychain)
• Comprehensive Large-Scale Irrigation Infrastructure and Canal Automation in Marrakech Training Manual
• Project Appraisal Template
• PPP Risk Allocation Matrix
• Works Supervision Checklist
• Asset Management Plan Template
• Practical Workshops & Simulations
• Group Discussions & Peer Learning
• Daily Lunch and Refreshments
• Full Access to Training Venue Facilities
• Mini Pad / Tablet with Digital Learning Materials
• Field Visit (where applicable)
• Entertaining City Tour

After the Programme

• Certificate of Completion
• Risalat Programme Participation Recognition Award
• Post-Training Reference Materials
• Business Case Review Checklist
• Maintenance Planning Template
• Post-Training Support & Follow-Up Guidance
• Programme Report

Institutions can also request a tailored in-house version of this programme, delivered at their premises or online. Request a proposal.

Common Challenges in Large-Scale Irrigation Infrastructure and Canal Automation in Marrakech, And How This Training Helps

How can institutions plan and prioritise infrastructure investments?

The programme addresses this directly on the first day (Open-Channel Hydraulics and Canal Design Principles), where participants practise the methods involved and adapt them to their own institution, then build it into their action plan.

How can institutions appraise projects and prepare business cases?

The programme addresses this directly on the second day (Headworks, Intake Engineering, and Sediment Management), where participants practise the methods involved and adapt them to their own institution, then build it into their action plan.

How can institutions choose financing and delivery models?

The programme addresses this directly on the third day (Canal Modernisation and Automated Flow Control Systems), where participants practise the methods involved and adapt them to their own institution, then build it into their action plan.

How can institutions supervise works for time, cost and quality?

The programme addresses this directly on the fourth day (Water Accounting, Monitoring, and Conveyance Efficiency), where participants practise the methods involved and adapt them to their own institution, then build it into their action plan.

How can institutions manage assets over their life?

The programme addresses this directly on the fifth day (Institutional Governance, Asset Management, and Tariff Recovery), where participants practise the methods involved and adapt them to their own institution, then build it into their action plan.

Frequently Asked Questions

When and where does the Large-Scale Irrigation Infrastructure and Canal Automation in Marrakech programme take place?

It runs from 1 Mar 2027 to 5 Mar 2027, in Marrakech, Morocco. The registration deadline is shown at the top of this page.

Who should attend?

The programme is designed for irrigation and drainage engineers from public water agencies and ministries, scheme operations directors and perimeter maintenance managers, civil engineers responsible for canal design and hydraulic structures, hydrologists and water accounting specialists in river basin authorities, and others who want practical skills in infrastructure, urban development and partnerships.

Will I receive a certificate?

Yes. Participants who complete the programme receive a Certificate of Completion from Risalat Consultants International.

Can this programme be delivered for our institution only?

Yes. We can deliver a tailored in-house version at your premises, in another city or online, built around your own cases. Use the proposal request on this page.

Do I need prior experience in infrastructure, urban development and partnerships?

No specialist background is required beyond experience in a related role. A short pre-assessment helps the facilitators adapt the sessions to the group.

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