Abstract
The natural variability exhibited by soil hydraulic properties poses severe challenges to model water movement through porous formations in agricultural fields. In this study, a 3D numerical approach coupled with the turning bands method to generate realizations of soil formation properties with different heterogeneity levels to solve the governing partial differential equation in variably saturated soils was used to simulate field scale water flow to investigate the impact of soil heterogeneity and root water uptake on subsurface flow dynamics in cropped fields. Soil moisture, suction head and hydraulic conductivity were observed to be significantly affected by heterogeneity of the media and root water uptake. Soil heterogeneity was found to increase soil water content while root water uptake was decreasing it. The effect of root water uptake on soil moisture distribution was more pronounced under homogenous soils than in heterogeneous soils. Soil suction head decreases with increasing soil heterogeneity whether root water uptake was considered or not. Hydraulic conductivity increases with increasing soil heterogeneity when root water uptake was ignored, and it depends on the heterogeneity level when root water uptake was accounted.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Bresler E, Dagan G (1988) Variability of yield of an irrigated crop and its causes 1. Statement of the problem and methodology. Water Resour Res. 24(3):381–387
Green TR, Dunn GH, Erskine RH, Salas JD, Ahuja LR (2009) Fractal analyses of steady infiltration and terrain on an undulating agricultural field. Vadose Zone J 8(2):310–320
Usowicz B, Lipiec J (2017) Spatial variability of soil properties and cereal yield in a cultivated field on sandy soil. Soil Tillage Res 174:241–250
Bevington J, Piragnolo D, Teatini P, Vellidis G, Morari F (2016) On the spatial variability of soil hydraulic properties in a Holocene coastal farmland. Geoderma 262:294–305. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2015.08.025
Nielsen DR, Biggar W, Erh KT (1973) Spatial variability of field-measured soil-water properties. Hilgardia 42(7):215–260
Sharma ML, Gander GA, Hunt CG (1980) Spatial variability of infiltration in a watershed. J Hydrol 45:101–122
Warrick AW, Nielsen DR (1980) Spatial variability of soil physical properties in the field. In: Applications of soil physics. Academic Press, Inc., pp 319–344
Herbst M, Diekkrüger B, Vereecken H (2006) Geostatistical co-regionalization of soil hydraulic properties in a micro-scale catchment using terrain attributes. Geoderma 132:206–221
Russo D, Zaidel J, Laufer A (1998) Dimensional partially saturated heterogeneous soil. Water Resour Res 34(6):1451–1468
Chen P-Y, Chen C-H, Hsu N-S, Wu C-M, Wen J-C (2012) Influence of heterogeneity on unsaturated hydraulic properties: (1) local heterogeneity and scale effect Hydrol Process 26(23):3593–3603
Ojha CSP, Rai AK (1996) Nonlinear root-water uptake model. J Irrig Drain Eng 122(4):198–202
van Genuchten MT, Nielsen DR (1985) On describing and predicting the hydraulic properties of unsaturated soils. Ann Geophys 3(5):615–628
Fiori A, Russo D (2007) Numerical analyses of subsurface flow in a steep hillslope under rainfall: the role of the spatial heterogeneity of the formation hydraulic properties. Water Resour Res 43(7):1–14
Acknowledgements
The research was funded by Science and Engineering Research Board, Department of Science and Technology, India, under Grant No. ECR/2016/000378.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this paper
Cite this paper
Yetbarek, E., Ojha, R. (2021). Numerical Analysis of Water Movement in Agricultural Fields with Heterogeneous Unsaturated Soils. In: Bhuiyan, C., Flügel, WA., Jain, S.K. (eds) Water Security and Sustainability. Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering, vol 115. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-9805-0_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-9805-0_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-15-9804-3
Online ISBN: 978-981-15-9805-0
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)