Modeling and Evaluating Soil Salt and Water Transport in a Cultivated Land–Wasteland–Lake System of Hetao, Yellow River Basin’s Upper Reaches

Guoshuai Wang, Bing Xu, Pengcheng Tang, Haibin Shi (), Delong Tian, Chen Zhang, Jie Ren and Zekun Li
Additional contact information
Guoshuai Wang: Institute of Water Resources for Pastoral Area Ministry of Water Resources, Hohhot 010020, China
Bing Xu: Institute of Water Resources for Pastoral Area Ministry of Water Resources, Hohhot 010020, China
Pengcheng Tang: Institute of Water Resources for Pastoral Area Ministry of Water Resources, Hohhot 010020, China
Haibin Shi: College of Water Conservancy and Civil Engineering, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Hohhot 010018, China
Delong Tian: Institute of Water Resources for Pastoral Area Ministry of Water Resources, Hohhot 010020, China
Chen Zhang: Institute of Water Resources for Pastoral Area Ministry of Water Resources, Hohhot 010020, China
Jie Ren: Institute of Water Resources for Pastoral Area Ministry of Water Resources, Hohhot 010020, China
Zekun Li: Institute of Water Resources for Pastoral Area Ministry of Water Resources, Hohhot 010020, China

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 21, 1-23

Abstract: With the implementation of water-conservation projects in the Hetao Irrigation District (HID), great changes have taken place in the ecohydrological process. A cultivated land–wasteland–lake system in the upper Yellow River Basin (YRB) was chosen to study the soil salt and water transport process with the Hydrus-1D model. The model parameters were calibrated and validated by measuring the soil salt and water data. Measured values were in good agreement with the simulated values. The results showed, in the whole growth period, the deep percolation of cultivated land was 34–40% of the total applied water (rainfall and irrigation). The capillary rise in the cultivated land, wasteland, and lake boundary was 24%, 29–35%, and 62–68% of their own evapotranspiration, respectively. The capillary rise in the lake boundary was about 2 times that of the wasteland and 2.6 times that of the cultivated land. The salt storage in the 1 m soil zone of the lake boundary was more than 10% and 18% greater than that of the wasteland and cultivated land, respectively. The salt of the capillary rise in the lake boundary exceeded that of the wasteland by a factor of three. The salt accumulation in the upper soil zone of the cultivated land, wasteland, and lake boundary was 13%, 37%, and 48%. Soil salinization in the upper soil zone of the wasteland and lake boundary was serious, and some measures should be taken to reduce the salt content to prevent soil salinization. The results act as a theoretical basis for the ecohydrological control of the HID.

Keywords: Hydrus-1D; different land types; water salt transport process; water balance; salt accumulation; distributed simulation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/21/14410/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/21/14410/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:21:p:14410-:d:962530

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().