The impact of upgrading irrigation canal water distribution and delivery systems on reducing the pumping of water from aquifers was investigated. Consequently, energy consumption and carbon emission reduction were investigated. For this purpose, a decentralized integrated control system and a centralized control system were designed. The arrangements were tested on the main canal of the Qazvin Irrigation District under a water shortage scenario. In this research, the centralized automatic control system was satisfactorily implemented in water distribution under the water shortage scenario. The decentralized control system (PI) did not show significant operational performance. According to the results, obtained values of the index of adequacy by upgrading utilization to decentralized automated control systems (PI) were 70 and 77% for the centralized automated control system. Accordingly, the reduction in harvesting from the aquifer was 69.7 and 71.5%, respectively, the reduction of energy consumption was 54.5 and 63.7%, and greenhouse gas emission reduction was 52.4 and 62.5%. © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.