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IS 13939 (1994): Intercepter drains for steep hill slopes

under plantation crops - Guidelines for laying [FAD 17:
Farm Irrigation and Drainage Systems]

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( Reaffirmed 1998 )

Indian Standard

FARM DRAINAGE-INTERCEPTOR
DRAINS FOR STEEP HTLL SLOPES UNDER
PLANTATION CROPS - GUIDELINES
FOR LAYING

UDC 626.861 : 631.62

Q BIS 1994

BUREAU
MANAK

February 1994

OF
BHAVAN,

INDIAN

STANDARDS

9 BAHADUR
SHAH
NEW DELHI 110002

ZAFAR

MARG

Price Group 4

Farm Drainage Equipment

and System Sectional Committee,

FADC 28

FOREWORD
This Indian Standard was adopted by the Bureau of Indian Standards, after the draft finalized by the
Farm Drainage Equipment and System Sectional Committee had been approved by the Food and
Agriculture Division Council.
Influence of high rainfall, steep slopes and complex nature of the underlying rocks present at shallow
depth, result3 in drainage problem of special nature in soils with plantation crop in areas like Darjeeling,
some parts of Dooars, Terai of North Bengal, Cachhar of Assam and Tea areas of South India. High rainfall on hne textured soils results in soils of low permeability
which becomes suscepetible to and are
aggravated by compaction, surface capping and natural, and chemical cultivation pans. These soils often
develop structureless layers at depth which makes natural drainage of subsoil excess water very difficult.
The soil strata of different permeability give rise to springs along their outcrops some of which are merely
seasonal whilst others Bow throughout the year. A spring or spring lme often adversely affects a considerable area of land under plantation crop in different parts of the country.
The seepage flow at shallow depths in the rootzone causes serious water logging that decays tea roots and
restricts the uptake of essential nutrients required for optimum growth of test The subsurface seepage flow
under excessive hydrostatic pressure causes land slide problem at places. Well designed interceptor drainage system have been found useful in reducing the problem of water logging and land slide by releasing
the hydrostatic pressure of the soil. The true interception occurs when the hydraulic gradient of the
undisturbed water table is 1 percent or greater.
In view of the importance of such drains, a need was felt to prepare this standard for providing guidelines
for designing and laying of interceptor drains
In preparation of this standard,
Research Association Jorhat.

assistance

has been

derived

from Tocklai

Experimental

Station,

Tea

IS 13939 t 1994

Indian Standard

FARMDRAINAGE-INTERCEPTOR
DRAINSFORSTEEPHILLSLOPESUNDER
PLANTATIONCROPS-GUIDELINES
FORLAYING
5.2 Nature ( phreatics or artesian ) and direction
of groundwater
Row shall be determined.

1 SCOPE
This standard provides
guidelines
for designing
and laying interceptor drains in hill sloping lands,
with plantation crops.
2 REFERENCE
The following
Indian
Standard
adjunct to this standard:

is a necessary
Title

IS Jvo.

Code for design and laying of

mineral filters for tile drain
system

IS 9979 : 1981

3 TERMINOLOGY
3.0 For the purpose of this standard,
definition shall apply.
3.1 Interceptor

the following

Drain

The drain in which all

from the upslope side.

ground

water

flow enters

OF EXCESS

4.1 The major source of

follows:

WATER

excess

water may be as

a) Seepage from
Up-land - Foreign
ground
water inflowing from adjacent land or from
a river or from an irrigation
canal whose
water level is higher than the water table
in the area under plantation.
b) High rainfall
plantation.

received

in

the

area

under

4.2 It is important
to estimate
the amount of
excessive seepage from upland and identify the
locations.
5 FIELD

INVESTIGATION

5.0 Before starting

the designing
and laying of
the interceptor drains, the following investigations
shall be made.
5.1 Delimitation
of the waterlogged
area by field
if
inspection and the use of aerial photographs,
available, shall be made.

._
I

5.4 Water
table and hydraulic
head shall be
measured. The observation
wells for water table
measurements
and piezometers
for the pressure
head should be installed
in phreatic
and semiconfined
or confined aquifers.
Spacings
of 50
metres are suggested.
Hydraulic
head may be
obtained
by adding appropriately
gravitational
head and pressure head. The readings should be
used to draw water table contour maps as well as
hydraulic head difference maps.
5.5 The depth of impe rvious
layers shall be
obtained.
Physical
( auger
hole/soil
profile
exposition ) or
geophysical
( geoelectric
or
seismic ) method shall be applied to determine the
depth of impervious layer.
6 INTERCEPTOR

NOTE - True interception occurs when the hydraulic

gradient of the undisturbed water table is 1 percent or
more.

4 SOURCES

5.3 Lateral extension,

thickness,
slope, hydraulic
conductivity and drainable porosity of the water
bearing strata shall be determined.

6.1

DRAINAGE

SYSTEM

Type of System

Interceptor
drain should be installed
to collect
lateral or horizontal
flow coming
from known
upland areas, thus preventing it from reaching the
area to be protected. In many instances, a single
interceptor line proves to be an adequate remedial
measure. The interceptor
usually should be placed
at the upper boundary of the wet area.
Interceptor drain should be planned as single random
drain or as a series of parallel
drains.
They are
required where soils are relatively permeable and
table where the gradient
of the water table is
relatively steep
6.2 Location

of Drain

The location of an interceptor

drain,
observed
quite
commonly
in the
plantation crops, are given below.
6.2.1

Abrupt Change

as they are
areas
with

in Topography

This is a situation of large valleys where the land

is subject to seepage from upland.
An abrupt
change in land is subject to seepage from upland.
An abrupt change in land slope from steep to flat
causes a rise in water table at the base of the slope

IS 13939: 1994
corrective measure is to lower the water table in
this area byan interceptor
drain installed at the
base of the hill land or at the base of a higher
terrace ( see Fig 1 ).

or a terrace. In such cases, the water table surface

is found close to a straight line or flat curve
extending from the water surface in the stream to
some distant
point
beneath
the terrace.
The

G.L

111

.WT AFTER DRAINAGE

e_ll--------

INTERCEPTER

DRAIN

FIG. 1 LOCATION OF INTERCEPTOR DRAIN WHERE SLOPE CHANGES ABRUPTLY

FEOM STEEP TO FLAT
6.2.2

at the foot of the slope. An interceptor

drain shall
be provided at the foot of the slope to control the
water table in the lower reaches ( see Fig. 3 ).

Impervious Layer Close to Ground

At points, the impervious

layer rises close to the
ground surface under natural conditions. It causes
the hydrualic grade line or water table surface to
rise to near the ground surface.
This situation is
often found in alluvial
flood plains where ancient
channel changes
have built up barriers
of fine
gained sediments. The corrective measure may be
an interceptor drain just upslope from the barrier
( see Fig. 2 ).
6.2.3

6.2.4 More Permeable

Poor& Pervious Layers

Layer

Sandwitched

Between

In some situations the permeable

layer outcrops
and causes a seep affecting
a considerable
area
below. This occurs when soil is highly stratified
with exposed
outcrop.
Such
permeable
layers
carry a considerable
groundwater
with hydraulic
grade line that intercept
the ground surface at
scP.ne point in the outcrop area causing a natural
seep. An interceptor
drain should be located at
the base of the permeable
material
to collect the
flow from the aquifer
and prevent seepage at the
ground surface ( see Fig. 4 ).

Seepage at the Foot of a Slope

A commonly observed situation in hills is a sudden

drop in ground elevation.
The land slope may or
may not remain the same. It causes water tables
to rise close to ground surface in the lower reaches
2

IS 13939 : 1994

G.L

wIIz2--cTERcEpTER
DRA1N
--Q*_=-__

--

----

?AFTER

-~~~~~~~~ -.

Fm. 2 LOCATIONOF INTERCEPTORDRAIN WHERE IMPERVIOUSLAYER COMESCLOSE

TO GROUND SURFACE
6.2.5

Seepage from

almost equal. On steeper slopes there is a bridging

over effect produced by the flow of foreign water
in the capillary fringe above the phreatic water
surface. This bridging effect may not occur in an
open drain. The escape of lateral flow over the
top of the pipe drain line may range from 5 to
20 percent
depending
on the nature of soil and
slope.

Water Channel

A considerably
high amount of seepage flow
occurs into the lower areas from water channels
and causes waterlogging.
An interceptor drain
constructed
some distance
below the
water
channel can take care of waterlogging
and control
water table below the rootzone ( see Fig. 5 ).
6.3

Drain Type

6.4

The choice between

an open drain and a pipe
drain depends on soil profile characteristics
and
slope of land,
The soil profile
characteristics
should be given more weightage
in making the
decision. Underlying
soil having loose formation
should not be cut open and requires
only close
systems. Open system should be used if a minimum depth of stable soil is available
after 60 cm

Drain

Depth

An interceptor
drain should be placed as deep as
it is practical to install,
preferably
along the top
of the impervious
layer so as to intercept
the
maximum amount of seepage flow. In case of pipe
drains, the trench
of the drain shall not be cut
into the impervious
layer otherwise a significant
percentage of lateral
flow will bridge over the
drain line and continue on down slope. The pipe
drains shall be installed with suitable
envelopes

below the designed depth of the drain. In land

with slope upto 3 percent or so, the efficiency is
3

IS 33939 : 1994

G.L

HIGH WT. AREA

INTERCEPTER

DRAIN

FIG. 3 LOCATIONOF INTBRCEPTORDRAIN AT

resting on the impervious layer so
amount of water is intercepted.
6.5

6.6

installed
progressively
accomplished
by digging
the first drain to protect the higher portion of the
wet area and lower drains can be dug after
evaluating the effect of the first drain.

that maximum

Filter

Organic,
mineral
and synthetic
used ( see IS 9979 : 1981 ).

filters

THE FOOT OF A SLOPE

may be

6.7

Amount

of Flow Intercepted

The quantity of lateral flow intercepted by a drain

is dependent on the position of the drain.
About
50 percent of the flow is intercepted
if the drain
is placed at the mid point between
the water
table and impervious layer.
If the drain is placed
three fourths of the way down about 75 percent
of the flow will be intercepted.
If it is possible to
install drain at impervious
layer, nearly 100 percent of the foreign groundwater
can be intercepted. It is desirable to estimate the amount of water
flowing past the point of interception.
By positioning the drain device in the profile, the probable
quantity of water to be drained can be measured.
Roughly,
the quantity
varies directly with the
depth of flow intercepted.

Drain Spacing

drain is very
Proper
location
of interceptor
important.
In many instances, a single interceptor
line may prove to be adequate.
They
can be
effective for a considerable
distance
downslope
from the drain but the upslope effect is usually
very small and can be ignored.
The spacing of
interceptor drains ranges between
60 and 150 m
based on practical experience.
The spacing, however, shall depend upon land slope(s), soil hydraulic conductivity(k),
thickness of soil layer being
intercepted for seepage flow, relative
position of
interceptor drain with respect to impervious layer
and amount of seepage flow.The system shall be
4

IS 13939 : 1994

WT RECEPTOR DRAIN

---

I'ERVIOUSLAYER

--_

--.

POORLY PERVI@US LAYER

FIG. 4 LOCATIONOF INTERCEPTOR
DRAIN WHERE PERVIOUS LAYER IS SANDWICHED
BETWEENPOORLYPERVIOUSLAYERS
tangency
level,

7 DRAWDOWN

7.1 Under the situation when all the flow originates from various sources upland and the soil is
homogeneous,
slope is uniform, Dupuit-Forchhenmer ( D-F ) assumptions are valid, the impervious
layer exists at certain depth below the drain, the
impervious layer and the initial water table have
a slope s with horizontal base line existing under
this situation the drawn down shall be calculated
in accordance
with the following procedure.
7.1.1

Drawn Down Upslofie

Glovers formula, given below, in simplified form

can be used under such conditions to calculate
the drawdown ( seti Fig. 6 ):
X

4
-*3s

water

flow of soil water

the slope in metres per metre

water table surface.

Drawdown

table

of original

Downslope

This is approximately
equal to the height of the
water in the drain provided
the radial resistance
equal to D,
is negligible
i.e., h is approximately
( see Fig. 6 ).
7.1.3 The discharge of the interceptor
unit length shall be expressed
by the
formula ( see Fig. 6 ):

drain per
following

H-h

Q==q41

where
x=

7.1.2

original

thickness of horizontal
being intercepted,
and

H=
5

with the

where
distance
in metre upslopc
drawdown
curve approaches

where the
significant

f2-

discharge
of the interceptor
unit length ( ms/day ),

drain per

IS 13939 : 1994
thickness
of horizontal
upslope being intercepted

H=

= water

41 =

flow

(m) ,

of

below the rootzone of ten.

the system are as follows:

water

impervious
(m), and
from
length

design details

Drain

flow
rate
per
unit
upslope ( ms/day ).

Depth

150 cm

Top width
Bottom width

120 to 150 cm

Water

type

Half trapezium

Shape

30 to 45 cm

Bed gradient

2 percent

Location

Along the upper boundary of the wet area

as observed
during
rainy season.

Spacing

60 to 150 m depending
condiupon
specific
tions of the area and
piezometric data.

Table Control

In areas where water table was recorded to be

fluctuating
between
30 and 45 cm depth below
ground level throughout the year before drainage
a systematically
designed
interceptor
drainage
system was installed
to control the water table
WATER CHANNEL

IGH WT AREA

WATER CHANNEL

HIGH WT AREA

INTFRCEPTER

DRAIN

FIG. 5 LOCATION OF INTERCEPTOR DRAIN WHERE SEEPAGE FROM WATER CHANNELS OCCUR
INTO FLOW LANDS

of

Open ditch

table height
above
layer down side of the drain

NOTE-The
shape of the drawdown curve
upslope is independent of hydraulic conductivity of the soil and quantity of flow becomes
a function OI the slope.

7.2

The

FIG. 6 DRAINAGE OF STEEP LAND-WITH ALL FLOW ORIGINATINQ FROM FOREIGN SOURCE UPSLOPE

G.L

INTEBCEPTER

i-

_/---

FICJ 7

DRAWDOWN

EFFECT OF INTERCEPTOR DRAIN WHEN SOURCE IS LOCAL RAINFALL

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