A New Approach to Use of Modified Soil Profile Meter for Tracking Changes Occurred in Ditches and Furrows Due to Surface Irrigation

Abstract

EROSION in ditches and furrows is an important issue associated with surface irrigation, in Egypt, representing a serious problem in Delta region, where most of the land still under furrow irrigation system. In this study, we describe a new measurement method for different soil furrows and ditches profiles. This method includes a newly designed soil profile meter, digital imaging equipment and image tracking & analyses software. Using such modified soil profile meter can help to observe and measure changes occur in irrigation channels, small ditches and to quantify changes at specific cross-sections within soil furrows. Using image processing and tracking system, we can trace marked points located in fixed level of meter pins, these points have vertical displacements and vary according to existing profiles and cross-sectional shape in different locations, which give the ability to record the presented form of different profiles. The recorded profiles heights for different locations gave perspicuous knowledge about the geometry of furrows and ditches shapes before and after seasonal irrigation process. The differences in measurements for the same location and sites were noted. Designed soil profile meter successfully demonstrated changes in profiles pattern due to surface irrigation erosion in term of height variations. In shallow and wide ditches, the differences in measured heights by soil profile meter after and before irrigation ranged from 0 to 11 mm, while in deep ditches, differences in heights ranged from 0 to 44 mm. With ridge profiles, the measured heights ranged from 0 to 13.88 %. A high percentage of variation obtained by studying flat top bed-furrow changes, the maximum percentage was 17.1 % at the beginning of the furrow line.This clarifies the ability to track and record erosion effect in different furrows and ditches by using soil profile meter as a part of used image processing and tracking system. In addition, soil analyses were done to interpret the results and to measure the credibility of the erosion behavior measurements aquired by the system.