Simulation of continuous and surge flow irrigation under short field conditions

Abstract

This paper describes the simulation results for continuous and surge flow irrigation under short field conditions by the computer model SIRMOD III in order to evaluate the performance and applicability of the model for short furrows and to investigate the viability of the two-point method for calculating infiltration parameters under continuous and surge flow irrigation in short fields. These specific field conditions are found on farms smaller than 1 ha and with a furrow length of 70 m. To evaluate the model a series of experiments has been carried out in two locations in Egypt and in one site in the Netherlands. The experiments in Egypt were conducted on a field with clay soil situated at the Agriculture Experimental Station, Assiut University, and on a sandy soil field located at the Assiut University Experimental Station for Desert Land, El-Wadi El-Assuity, Assiut. The experiments in the Netherlands were carried out at the Tunnel Experimental Setting of the Irrigation and Water Engineering Group of Wageningen University. The tunnel was covered as a greenhouse to protect the investigations against the external weather conditions, especially rainfall. Two soil types were available inside the tunnel, namely sandy clay and sandy clay loam. All the experiments were carried out in furrows with a blocked end and their length and width were 70 and 0.70 m, respectively. Measured field data were used to evaluate the computer model SIRMOD III. The results of the evaluation indicated that the model can accurately simulate continuous and surge flow irrigation under short field conditions for the measured infiltration parameters. These field data are very important for a good simulation of the advance time and consequently the infiltration. The two-point method can be successfully used to obtain the infiltration parameters for continuous and surge flow irrigation under short field conditions and for different soil types. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.