Effects of Flow Depth on Water Flow and Solute Transport in Furrow Irrigation: Field Data Analysis

Abstract

Because of field-scale heterogeneity in soil hydraulic and solute transport properties, relatively large-scale experiments are now increasingly believed to be critical to better understand and predict the movement of water and dissolved solutes under field conditions. In this study, five field experiments were conducted on short blocked-end furrows to assess the effects of irrigation water level on water flow and solute transport in furrows. Three experiments were carried out, each of the same duration but with different amounts of water and solutes resulting from 6, 10, and 14 cm furrow water depths, designated as low, moderate, and high water levels, respectively. Two more experiments were performed with the same amounts of applied water and solute and, consequently, different durations, on furrows with depths of 6 and 10 cm of water. Results show that both the water level and the duration play an important role in transporting and distributing water and solutes in the soil profile. A positive correlation was found between water level and infiltrated amount of water or solute. Irrigation/solute application amounts increased with decreasing water level. Water and solutes were both distributed almost vertically ͑one-dimensionally͒ for the low water level and short application treatments, while they moved much more two-dimensionally with low and moderate water depths but longer application times. Irrigation with the 14 cm water level and short application time improved the distribution of water and solutes within the soil profiles, while also causing relatively less deep percolation of water and solutes as compared to low and moderate water levels and relatively long duration times.

Simultaneous Inverse Estimation of Soil Hydraulic and Solute Transport Parameters From Transient Field Experiments: Homogeneous Soil

“…As demonstrated by Abbasi et al (2003), observed concentrations, particularly in the SWS plots, showed considerable lateral solute spreading. In addition, D T values showed larger CVs as compared to the other optimized parameters (table 2).…”

“…The blocked portion of the furrows was 3 m in length. Details about the experiments can be found in Abbasi et al (2003). Below we briefly discuss only those parts of the experiments that are directly related to this study.…”

“…The limited studies available in the literature suggest that transport processes can be significantly affected by irrigation regime and application method (Bowman and Rice, 1986;Jaynes et al, 1988;Wang et al, 1997). In an extensive furrow irrigation study, Abbasi et al (2003) recently showed that water flow depth and irrigation/solute application time both play a major role in transporting and distributing water and solutes below the furrows. The main purpose of this study was to quantify soil hydraulic and solute transport properties from various 2-D field experiments on blocked-end furrows under transient conditions.…”

Surface fertigation: a review, gaps and needs

“…These results indicated that alternate furrow irrigation has potential to keep more water and nitrate in the root zone due to its increased potential for horizontal movement of water and nitrate. Abbasi et al (2003a) reported on the impact of furrow flow depth on infiltrated water and bromide. Field experiments used short blocked-end furrows, and combined different flow depths and durations.…”

Modeling of Transient Two Dimensional Flow in Saturated-Unsaturated Porous Media

“…Abassi et al, 2003). A detailed attention was given to the transfers problems through the unsaturated zone (e.g.…”