Subsurface Drainage—What's Next?

Abstract

AbstractField drainage is a critical component of agricultural production in both arid and humid regions, but field drainage is often neglected and mismanaged as an important water resource. Innovative approaches for the integrated design and management of irrigation and subsurface drainage systems have tremendous potential to improve yields to help meet the rapidly emerging food demands and decrease total freshwater diversions to agriculture. Although irrigation system design and management have evolved tremendously in the past few decades, the design methodology and management criteria for subsurface drainage have not changed in the last 50 years. Thus, all aspects of agricultural drainage require serious reconsideration and reevaluation to be able to meet emerging needs. This manuscript evaluates the current design criteria and practices and suggests viable alternatives for the improvement of subsurface agricultural drainage systems to meet the demands of modern agriculture. Drainage water treatment, reuse, and disposal are significant problems for agricultural drainage and various alternatives are presented. Published 2015. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.