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Maintaining environmental and productivity sustainability of a non‐homogeneous furrow set in different agro‐landscapes
Author(s) -
Popova Z.,
Mailhol J. C.,
Ruelle P.,
Varlev I.,
Gospodinov I.
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
irrigation and drainage
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.421
H-Index - 38
eISSN - 1531-0361
pISSN - 1531-0353
DOI - 10.1002/ird.173
Subject(s) - environmental science , irrigation , surface runoff , surface irrigation , agricultural engineering , infiltration (hvac) , distribution uniformity , agriculture , hydrology (agriculture) , water resource management , engineering , geography , agronomy , ecology , biology , geotechnical engineering , archaeology , meteorology
The aim of this paper is to evaluate the impact of distribution uniformity on environment and productivity under furrow irrigation in different agro‐landscapes in France and Bulgaria and propose geographically oriented irrigation options. Unlike studies based on a single furrow observation, these analyses take into account global uniformity when more than 30–40 simultaneously irrigated furrows are considered. FURMOD (Popova, 1990; Popova and Kuncheva, 1996) and SOFIP (Mailhol, 2001, 2003) models are calibrated and validated with data from field observation. FURMOD is a model allowing the evaluation of water distribution, deep percolation and runoff losses depending on application time and depth, soil infiltration parameters, water deficit in the root zone and lateral non‐uniformity of the advance process. The estimated water application depths (WAD) are therefore inputs of a crop model for evaluating the impact of WAD heterogeneity on crop production and nitrogen leaching. SOFIP is a simulation model analysing the impact of a furrow irrigation practice on deep percolation and crop productivity. Taking into account different sources of variability (discharge inlet, infiltration parameters), the prediction capability of SOFIP aims at the improvement of the furrow irrigation systems management and design. These two different approaches are compared in terms of robustness and convenience of use. The role of irrigation practice in increasing the efficiency of the use of land and water resources is defined over a series of years. Model runs show that the maintenance of environmental and productivity stability requires reduction of heterogeneity sources especially in the case of high irrigation requirements. Different strategies are recommended to save irrigation water, maximise yield and mitigate environmental hazards. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.