Development of SWAT-Paddy for Simulating Lowland Paddy Fields

Ryota Tsuchiya, Tasuku Kato, Jaehak Jeong and Jeffrey G. Arnold
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Ryota Tsuchiya: The Graduate School of Agriculture, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, 3-5-8 Saiwaicho, Fuchu, Tokyo 183-8509, Japan
Tasuku Kato: Institute of Agriculture, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, 3-5-8 Saiwaicho, Fuchu, Tokyo 183-8509, Japan
Jaehak Jeong: Blackland Research and Extension Center, Texas A&M AgriLife Research, 720 East Blackland Road, Temple, TX 76502, USA
Jeffrey G. Arnold: Grassland Soil and Water Research Laboratory, USDA-ARS, 808 East Blackland Road, Temple, TX 76502, USA

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 9, 1-19

Abstract: The recent increase in global consumption of rice has led to increased demand for sustainable water management in paddy cultivation. In this study, we propose an enhanced paddy simulation module to be introduced to Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) to evaluate the sustainability of paddy cultivation. The enhancements added to SWAT include: (1) modification of water balance calculation for impounded fields, (2) addition of an irrigation management option for paddy fields that are characterized by flood irrigation with target water depth, and (3) addition of a puddling operation that influences the water quality and infiltration rate of the top soil layer. In a case study, the enhanced model, entitled SWAT-Paddy, was applied to an agricultural watershed in Japan. The results showed that the SWAT-Paddy successfully represented paddy cultivation, water management, and discharge processes. Simulated daily discharge rates with SWAT-Paddy (R 2 = 0.8) were superior to the SWAT result (R 2 = 0.002). SWAT-Paddy allows the simulation of paddy management processes realistically, and thus can enhance model accuracy in paddy-dominant agricultural watersheds.

Keywords: SWAT; water quality; paddy fields; irrigation; rice; watershed (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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