Abstract
The irrigation in regions of brackish groundwater in many parts of the world results in the rise of the water-table very close to the groundsurface. The salinity of the productive soils is therefore increased. A proper layout of the ditch-drainage system and the prediction of the spatio-temporal variation of the water table under such conditions are of crucial importance in order to control the undesirable growth of the water-table. In this paper, an approximate solution of the nonlinear Boussinesq equation has been derived to describe the water-table variations in a ditch-drainage system with a random initial condition and transient recharge. The applications of the solution is discussed with the help of a synthetic example.
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Abbreviations
- a :
-
lower value of the random variable representing the initial water-table height at the groundwater divide
- a+b :
-
upper value of the random variable representing the initial water-table height at the groundwater divide
- h :
-
variable water-table height measured from the base of the aquifer
- K :
-
hydraulic conductivity
- L :
-
half width between ditches
- m 0 :
-
initial water-table height at the groundwater divide
- N(t) :
-
rate of transient recharge at time t
- N 0 :
-
initial rate of transient recharge
- P :
-
N 0/K
- S :
-
Specific yield
- t :
-
time of observation
- t 0 :
-
logarithmic decrement of the recharge function
- T :
-
Kt/SL
- x :
-
distance measured from the ditch boundary
- X :
-
x/L
- Y :
-
h/L
- 〈Y〉:
-
mean of Y
- ≪Y≫:
-
Variance of Y
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Rai, S.N., Singh, R.N. On the predictability of the water-table variation in a ditch-drainage system. Water Resour Manage 2, 289–298 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00424660
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00424660