An overview of impact of subsurface drainage project studies on salinity management in developing countries

Abstract

Subsurface drainage has been used for more than a century to keep water table at a desired level of salinity and waterlogging control. This paper has been focused on the impact assessment of pilot studies in India and some other countries from 1969 to 2014. This review article may prove quite useful in deciding the installation of subsurface drainage project depending on main design parameters, such as drain depth and drain spacing, installation area and type of used outlet. A number of pilot studies have been taken up in past to solve the problems of soil salinity and waterlogging in India. The general guidelines that arise on the behalf of this review paper are to adapt drain depth [1.2 m and spacing depending on soil texture classification, i.e., 100-150 m for light-textured soils, 50-100 m for medium-textured soils and 30-50 m heavy-textured soils, for better result obtained from the problem areas in Indian soil and climatic conditions. An attempt has been made in the manner of literature survey to highlight the salient features of these studies, and it is hopeful to go a long way in selecting design parameters for subsurface drainage problems in the future with similar soil, water table and climatic conditions.

Design of subsurface drainage network with minimum overall cost using Lagrange multiplier optimization

“…Although near-spaced (≈50 m) laterals are recommended for heavy-textured soils (e.g. clay), especially when the drainage rate is high, their cost is considerably high compared to light-textured soils, where the spacing between laterals is between 100 and 150 m (Tiwari & Goel, 2017). This also agreed with the finding of Bundela et al (2016), where the cost of the subsurface drainage system in heavy-textured soil was almost one and a half times that of the system in light-and medium-textured soils.…”

Classification of agricultural land consolidation types based on soil security to improve limiting factors adapted to local soil conditions

“…The facility improvement type included soils that require the construction of agricultural infrastructure and drainage projects. This includes farm ditches, lateral drainage ditches, and drainage culverts to prevent the land from water logging after rain and irrigation (Tiwari & Goel, 2017). Although some soil limiting factors exist for the fields in the temporary non‐consolidation type area, the soil safety is high, the terrain is flat, and the soil is relatively fertile.…”

Field study on the influence of subsurface drainage pipes and envelopes on discharge and salt leaching in arid areas

“…Of these measures, open ditch and subsurface drainage are the most commonly used. Compared with open ditch drainage, subsurface drainage cannot only effectively control groundwater level, discharge excess soil moisture and improve the effect of soil leaching desalination, but it also has the advantages of less land occupation, low maintenance cost and convenient mechanized construction; accordingly, subsurface drainage has been widely used in arid and semi‐arid areas (Ritzema, 1994; Tiwari & Goel, 2017; Valipour, 2014). For example, Xinjiang in China, which is a typical arid region, began introducing Dutch technology in the installation of subsurface drainage pipes in farmlands in 1985, improving saline‐alkali land by irrigation and leaching.…”