Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Numerical evaluation of subsurface trickle irrigation with brackish water

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Irrigation Science Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In this study, an assessment for a proposed irrigation system in the El-Salam Canal cultivated land, Egypt, was conducted. A numerical model (HYDRUS-2D/3D) was applied to investigate the effect of irrigation amount, frequency, and emitter depth on the wetted soil volume, soil salinity levels, and deep percolation under subsurface trickle irrigation (SDI) of tomato growing with brackish irrigation water in three different soil types. The simulations indicated that lower irrigation frequency increased the wetted soil volume without significant increase in water percolates below the plant roots. Deep percolation decreased as the amount of irrigation water and emitter depth decreased. With the same amount of irrigation water, the volume of leached soil was larger at lower irrigation frequency. The salinity of irrigation water under SDI with shallow emitter depth did not show any significant effect on increasing the soil salinity above tomato crop salt tolerance. Based on the results, it appears that the use of SDI with brackish irrigation water is an effective method for growing tomato crop in El-Salam Canal cultivated land especially with shallow emitter depth.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Abou Lila T, Balah M, Hamed Y (2005) Solute infiltration and spatial salinity distribution behavior for the main soil types at El-Salam Canal project cultivated land. Port Said Eng Res J 9:242–253

    Google Scholar 

  • Allen R, Pereira L, Raes D, Smith M (1998) Crop Evapotranspiration: Guidelines for Computing Crop Water Requirements. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome

    Google Scholar 

  • Anderson MP (1984) Movement of contaminants in groundwater: groundwater transport-advection and dispersion. Groundwater contamination. Studies in geophysics. National Academy, Washington, DC, In, pp 37–45

    Google Scholar 

  • Assouline S (2002) The effect of microdrip and conventional drip irrigation on water distribution and uptake. Soil Sci Soc Am J 66:1630–1636

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ayars J, Phene C, Hutmacher R, Davis K, Schoneman R, Vail S, Mead R (1999) Subsurface drip irrigation of row crops: a review of 15 years of research at the Water Management Research Laboratory. Agric Water Manag 42:1–27

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beven K, Henderson D, Reeves A (1993) Dispersion parameters for undisturbed partially saturated soil. J Hydrol 143:19–43

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cook F, Fitch P, Thorburn P, Charlesworth P, Bristow K (2006) Modelling trickle irrigation: comparison of analytical and numerical models for estimation of wetting front position with time. Environ Model Softw 21:1353–1359

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cote C, Bristow K, Ford E, Verburg K, Keating B (2001) Measurement of water and solute movement in large undisturbed soil cores: analysis of Macknade and Bundaderg data. CSIRO Land and Water, Technical Report 07/2001

  • Cote C, Bristow K, Charlesworth P, Cook F, Thorburn P (2003) Analysis of soil wetting and solute transport in subsurface trickle irrigation. Irrig Sci J 22:143–156

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Douh B, Boujelben A (2012) Diagnostic des pratiques d’irrigation localisée souterraine en Tunisie. Effet sur la variation du stock en eau du sol, le rendement d’une culture de maïs et l’efficience de l’utilisation de l’eau. Larhyss J 10:115–126 (in French)

    Google Scholar 

  • Feddes R, Kowalik P, Zaradny H (1978) Simulation of field water use and crop yield. John Wiley & Sons, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Gärdenäs A, Hopmans J, Hanson B, Simunek J (2005) Two-dimensional modeling of nitrate leaching for various fertigation Scenarios under micro-irrigation. Agric Water Manag 74:219–242

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hanson B, Hutmacher R, May D (2006a) Drip irrigation of tomato and cotton under shallow saline ground water conditions. Irrig Drain Syst J 20:155–175

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hanson B, Simunek J, Hopmans J (2006b) Evaluation of urea-ammonium-nitrate fertigation with drip irrigation using numerical modeling. Agric Water Manag 86:102–113

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hanson B, Hopmans J, Simunek J (2008) Leaching with subsurface drip irrigation under saline, shallow groundwater conditions. Vadose zone J 7(2):810–818

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heuvelink E (1995) Growth, development and yield of a tomato crop: periodic destructive measurements in a greenhouse. Sci Horticul 61:77–99

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hillel D (1998) Environmental soil physics. Academic press, San Diego

    Google Scholar 

  • Kandelous M, Simunek J (2010) Comparison of numerical, analytical, and empirical models to estimate wetting patterns for surface and subsurface drip irrigation. Irrig Sci J 28:435–444

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maas E (1990) Crop salt tolerance. P. 262-304. In Tanji KK (ed) Agricultural salinity assessment and management. ASCE Manuals and Rep. on Eng. Practice 71. Am Soc Civil Eng, New York

  • Mei X, Shen Z, Ren J, Wang Z (2012) Effects of dripper discharge and irrigation amount on soil-water dynamics under subsurface drip irrigation. Adv Mater Res 347–353:2400–2403

    Google Scholar 

  • Mmolawa K, Or D (2003) Experimental and numerical evaluation of an analytical volume balance model for soil water dynamics under drip irrigation. Soil Sci Soc Am J 67:1657–1671

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Oron G, DeMalach Y, Gillerman L, David I, Rao V (1999) Improved saline-water use under subsurface drip irrigation. Agric Water Manag 39:19–33

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Patel N, Rajput T (2007) Effect of drip tape placement depth and irrigation level on yield of potato. Agric Water Manag 88:209–223

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rashed A, Khalifa E, Fahmy H (2003) Paddy rice cultivation in irrigated water managed saline sodic lands under reclamation, Egypt. The 9th ICID International Drainage Workshop, Utrecht, Netherlands, p 071

  • Richards L (1931) Capillary conduction of liquid in porous media. Physics 1:318–333

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roberts T, Lazarovitch N, Warrick A, Thompson T (2009) Modeling salt accumulation with subsurface drip irrigation using Hydrus-2D. Soil Sci Soc Am J 73:233–240

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Schoups G, Hopmans J, Young C, Vrugt J, Wallender W, Tanji K, Panday S (2005) Sustainability of irrigated agriculture in the San Joaqquin Valley, California. Proc Natl Acad Sci 102:15352–15356

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Simunek J, Sejna M, van Genuchten MTh (1999) The HYDRUS-2D software package for simulating the two-dimensional movement of water, heat, and multiple solutes in variably-saturated media. IGWMC-TPS 53, Version 2.0, International Ground Water Modeling Center, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Colo

  • Simunek J, van Genuchten MTh, Sejna M (2008) Development and applications of the HYDRUS and STANMOD software package and related codes. Vadose Zone J 7(2):587–600

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Skaggs T, Trout T, Simunek J, Shouse P (2004) Comparison of Hydrus-2D simulations of drip irrigation with experimental observations. J Irrig Drain Eng 130(4):304–310

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Skaggs T, Trout T, Rothfuss Y (2010) Drip irrigation water distribution patterns: effects of emitter rate, pulsing, and antecedent water. Soil Sci Soc Am J 74:1886–1896

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Tingwu L, Juan X, Guangyong L, Jianhua M, Jianping W, Zhizhong L, Jianguo Z (2003) Effect of drip irrigation with saline water on water use efficiency and quality of Watermelons. Water Resour Manag 17:395–408

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • van Genuchten MTh (1980) A closed-form equation for predicting hydraulic conductivity of unsaturated soils. Soil Sci Soc Am J 44:892–898

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vrugt J, van Wijk M, Hopmans J, Simunek J (2001) One-, two-, and three-dimensional root water uptake functions for transient modeling. Water Resour Res 37:2457–2470

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful for funding from the EU Erasmus program and the Center for Middle Eastern Studies through the MECW project at Lund University.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Civil Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Port Said University, Port Said, Egypt

    Tarek Selim Abou Lila, Mohamed Somaida, Mohamed El-Kiki, Yasser Hamed & Ahmed Mirdan

  2. Department of Water Resources Engineering, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Lund University, Box 201, 221 00, Lund, Sweden

    Ronny Berndtsson

  3. Department of Water Resources Engineering, Lund University, Box 118, 221 00, Lund, Sweden

    Magnus Persson

Authors
  1. Tarek Selim Abou Lila
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Ronny Berndtsson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Magnus Persson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Mohamed Somaida
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Mohamed El-Kiki
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Yasser Hamed
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Ahmed Mirdan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tarek Selim Abou Lila.

Additional information

Communicated by J. Ayars.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Abou Lila, T.S., Berndtsson, R., Persson, M. et al. Numerical evaluation of subsurface trickle irrigation with brackish water. Irrig Sci 31, 1125–1137 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00271-012-0393-6

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00271-012-0393-6

Keywords

Search

Navigation