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Coupled impact of spatial variability of infiltration and microtopography on basin irrigation performances

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Abstract

Soil surface elevation and infiltration are two key variables that affect basin irrigation performances. A number of sets of spatially variable surface elevation and infiltration parameters were generated using stochastic modeling, and a 2D basin irrigation model was used to simulate irrigation for the generated sets. Strip, narrow, and wide basins, with different slope, land leveling precision, infiltration variation and inflow rate were analyzed. The coupled influence of spatial variation of microtopography and infiltration on irrigation performance, relationship between the influence degrees and degrees of spatial variance, and other irrigation factors were discussed. Results show that the basin irrigation performance decreased with increased spatial variability of microtopography and infiltration. The effect of the spatial variability of microtopography became more obvious when S d (land leveling precision) was more than 1 cm. Smaller spatial variability of infiltration resulted in a stronger influence degree of microtopography on irrigation performance, and increasing the inflow can weaken this influence. The spatial variability of infiltration mainly affected the irrigation uniformity CU, and the effect on the infiltrated depth when advance was completed (Z adv) was very small. The influence of infiltration variation on irrigation performances increased with Enhanced land leveling precision, especially for zero-leveled basins. For such basins, the influence of infiltration variation on irrigation performance should be paid more attention in the design and management of irrigation systems.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by The National Key R&D Program of China No.2016YFC0400103, 2016YFC0401403; the National Natural Science Fund project Nos. 51279225, 51509269, Doctorial Innovation Fund of China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research (2014). Thanks are due to Xu Jingdong and Li Fuxiang for contributing to the field experiments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Simulation and Regulation of Water Cycle in River Basin, China Institute of Water Resource and Hydropower Research, Beijing, 100048, China

    Meijian Bai, Di Xu, Yinong Li, Shaohui Zhang & ShanShan Liu

  2. National Center of Efficient Irrigation Engineering and Technology Research, Beijing, 100048, China

    Meijian Bai, Di Xu, Yinong Li, Shaohui Zhang & ShanShan Liu

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  1. Meijian Bai
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  2. Di Xu
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  3. Yinong Li
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  4. Shaohui Zhang
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  5. ShanShan Liu
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Correspondence to Di Xu.

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Communicated by E. Fereres.

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Bai, M., Xu, D., Li, Y. et al. Coupled impact of spatial variability of infiltration and microtopography on basin irrigation performances. Irrig Sci 35, 437–449 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00271-017-0550-z

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