Development of a steady-state model to predict daily water table depth and root zone soil matric potential of a cranberry field with a subirrigation system

Yao Bigah, Alain N. Rousseau and Silvio José Gumiere

Agricultural Water Management, 2019, vol. 213, issue C, 1016-1027

Abstract: Maintaining a steady water table depth (WTD) to ensure an optimal soil matric potential in the root zone (RMAP) is vital when growing cranberry under a subirrigation system; owing to losses and other hydrological processes. The excessive rising or falling of the WTD may threaten the plant transpiration either by saturation or lack of moisture in the root soil. A steady-state model was developed for a uniform soil column to predict WTD and RMAP under different weather conditions. The model is based on van Genuchten (VG) and Brooks and Corey (BC) analytical soil water retention functions coupled with Mualem, Brooks and Corey, and Gardner hydraulic conductivity models. The results show that the model is capable of predicting satisfactorily both WTD and RMAP. The VG model performed with a 78.13% accuracy for the WTD and an 88.59% precision according to the Kling Gupta Efficiency coefficient (r2 = 0.90, β = 1.00, and γ = 0.99) for the field storage. Meanwhile for the RMAP the Mualem and Gardner hydraulic conductivity models, predictions were successful 71.87% and 75.00% of the time, respectively. The BC model had a 78.13% success for the WTD, 86.93% accuracy in estimating the field water storage according to Kling-Gupta efficiency coefficient (r2 = 0.89, β = 1.00, and γ = 1.00) and the BC and Gardner hydraulic conductivity models had 65.63% and 71.88% success, respectively. A sensitivity analysis of the model, by means of the Morris method, reveals that for both models, the lower boundary condition impacts significantly both variables which are, however, less affected by the field capacity and the residual soil moisture content. The lower boundary condition interacts with the slope of the soil water retention functions, the height of the capillary fringe, the saturated conductivity, and the saturation moisture content which have non-linear effects. An uncertainty analysis shows that both variables for both models are normally distributed.

Keywords: Irrigation; Evapotranspiration; Soil water retention; Soil hydraulic conductivity; Van genuchten; Brooks and Corey; Mualem; Gardner (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378377418310138
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

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:eee:agiwat:v:213:y:2019:i:c:p:1016-1027

DOI: 10.1016/j.agwat.2018.12.024

Access Statistics for this article

Agricultural Water Management is currently edited by B.E. Clothier, W. Dierickx, J. Oster and D. Wichelns

More articles in Agricultural Water Management from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().