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A special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441). This special issue belongs to the section "Water Use and Scarcity".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 July 2019) | Viewed by 35360

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Special Issue Editor

Dr. Vasileios Liakos

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Guest Editor

Crop and Soil Sciences Department, University of Georgia
Interests: smart irrigation; management zones; remote sensing; increase water use efficiency of irrigation; geostatistics; decision support tools; automation; Internet of Things; precision farming; variable rate application

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We encourage you to submit papers for an important Special Issue of Water, focused on water resources and precision agriculture. Farming is the dominant water consumer, as it uses the 70% of available fresh water. Demands on agricultural water supplies are likely to increase over time, as alternative non-farm uses of water continue to grow. While substantial technological innovation has increased the efficiency of irrigated agriculture over the past several decades, significant potentials exist for continued improvement. At least half of irrigated cropland acreage all over the world is still irrigated with less efficient, traditional irrigation application systems. Farmers are used to overusing the available fresh water and this supports the existence of a growing competition for available fresh water supplies. However, during the last decade, ground water has been depleting at an alarming rate in many agriculture areas, while the increasing levels of industrial activity demand huge amounts of fresh water. If irrigated agriculture is to survive this competition, new irrigation practices and tools should be developed for more efficient water use. Papers for this Special Issue should be focused on how technology, precision agriculture, big data management, irrigation strategies and decision support tools can help farmers increase the water use efficiency of irrigation, protect the environment and increase their profits.

Dr. Vasileios Liakos
Guest Editor

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Keywords

Irrigation Management Zones
Decision Support Tools
Variable Rate Irrigation
Remote Sensing
Smart Irrigation
Water Resources Management
Irrigation Scheduling Tools
Irrigation Efficiency

Published Papers (9 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 5335 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Modeling and Dynamic-Simulating the Water Distribution of a Fixed Spray-Plate Sprinkler on a Lateral-Move Sprinkler Irrigation System

by Yisheng Zhang, Jinjun Guo, Bin Sun, Hongyuan Fang, Delan Zhu and Huiliang Wang

Water 2019, 11(11), 2296; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/w11112296 - 02 Nov 2019

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 3245

Abstract

Uniformity of water distribution plays an important role in evaluating irrigation quality. As necessities in calculating irrigation uniformity during designing a lateral-move sprinkler irrigation system (LMSIS), the water distribution patterns of individual sprinkler in motion are crucial. Considering the limitation of the experiment platform, dynamic water distribution of an isolated sprinkler is difficult to measure, especially for a fixed spray plate sprinkler (FSPS) which LMSIS has been widely equipped with in China, therefore developing a model to simulate dynamic water distribution of a moving sprinkler is necessary. The objective of this study was to develop and validate the theoretical basis for calculating water distribution characteristics of a single FSPS in translational motion applying a superposition method, and provide an optimized operation management of LMSIS. The theoretical model’s validity was verified in an indoor experiment using a Nelson D3000 FSPS in motion with 36 grooves and blue-plate spray heads. The software was programmed using the Eclipse Platform and the software was capable of simulating water distribution pattern and Christiansen uniformity coefficient (Cu). The results indicated that the water distribution simulated by the software presents three peaks of maximum application under varying conditions, and the value of water application peaks decreased as working pressure and/or mounting height increased. Conversely, the wetted diameter increased as working pressure and/or mounting height increased. Working pressure, mounting height, and sprinkler spacing each had a significant effect on the Cu. The Cu increased as working pressure and/or mounting height increased but decreased as sprinkler spacing increased. As a consequence, the model can be used to predict the relative water distribution pattern; and the Cu can be calculated with the simulated data, thus providing a tool for designing a new LMSIS. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Precision Agriculture and Irrigation)

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23 pages, 12398 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Maize Yield and Irrigation Applied in Conservation and Conventional Tillage at Various Plant Densities

by Anna Orfanou, Dimitrios Pavlou and Wesley M. Porter

Water 2019, 11(8), 1726; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/w11081726 - 19 Aug 2019

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 3881

Abstract

Maize is one of the most highly produced crops around the world. Factors such as population density, solar radiation, temperature, availability of nutrients and water, and proper tillage method can have favorable results in increasing yield. This project began in 2015, at two different locations in Georgia (Tifton and Camilla), GA, USA, and has been evaluated for three consecutive maize growing seasons. In each location, a different irrigation method was applied; the University of Georgia (UGA) maize checkbook method was utilized in Tifton and a soil moisture sensor-based method was utilized in Camilla. The different treatments consisted of two tillage methods, conservation and conventional, and four plant densities (69K, 88K, 99K, and 133K plants/ha). The purpose of the project was the evaluation of water requirements by population and tillage method for achieving high maize yields. Soil moisture information was collected hourly in both fields. The results showed that higher plant densities do not necessarily require higher irrigation amounts and do not always have the best results in terms of yield. Conventional tillage had slightly better yield results but not statistically different from conservation tilled plots. Additionally, the results showed that applied irrigation can help in higher maize production. However, increasing the amount of water does not directly equate to higher yield results. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Precision Agriculture and Irrigation)

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16 pages, 2762 KiB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceArticle

Increased Dependence on Irrigated Crop Production Across the CONUS (1945–2015)

by Samuel J. Smidt, Anthony D. Kendall and David W. Hyndman

Water 2019, 11(7), 1458; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/w11071458 - 14 Jul 2019

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 3419

Abstract

Efficient irrigation technologies, which seem to promise reduced production costs and water consumption in heavily irrigated areas, may instead be driving increased irrigation use in areas that were not traditionally irrigated. As a result, the total dependence on supplemental irrigation for crop production and revenue is steadily increasing across the contiguous United States. Quantifying this dependence has been hampered by a lack of comprehensive irrigated and dryland yield and harvested area data outside of major irrigated regions, despite the importance and long history of irrigation applications in agriculture. This study used a linear regression model to disaggregate lumped agricultural statistics and estimate average irrigated and dryland yields at the state level for five major row crops: corn, cotton, hay, soybeans, and wheat. For 1945–2015, we quantified crop production, irrigation enhancement revenue, and irrigated and dryland areas in both intensively irrigated and marginally-dependent states, where both irrigated and dryland farming practices are implemented. In 2015, we found that irrigating just the five commodity crops enhanced revenue by ~$7 billion across all states with irrigation. In states with both irrigated and dryland practices, 23% of total produced area relied on irrigation, resulting in 7% more production than from dryland practices. There was a clear response to increasing biofuel demand, with the addition of more than 3.6 million ha of irrigated corn and soybeans in the last decade in marginally-dependent states. Since 1945, we estimate that yield enhancement due to irrigation has resulted in over $465 billion in increased revenue across the contiguous United States (CONUS). Example applications of this dataset include estimating historical water use, evaluating the effects of environmental policies, developing new resource management strategies, economic risk analyses, and developing tools for farmer decision making. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Precision Agriculture and Irrigation)

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Graphical abstract

14 pages, 2163 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Application of Updated Sage–Husa Adaptive Kalman Filter in the Navigation of a Translational Sprinkler Irrigation Machine

by Kenan Liu, Wuyun Zhao, Bugong Sun, Pute Wu, Delan Zhu and Peng Zhang

Water 2019, 11(6), 1269; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/w11061269 - 17 Jun 2019

Cited by 16 | Viewed by 3360

Abstract

Autonomous navigation for agricultural machinery has broad and promising development prospects. Kalman filter technology, which can improve positioning accuracy, is widely used in navigation systems in different fields. However, there has not been much research performed into navigation for sprinkler irrigation machines (SIMs). In this paper, firstly, a self-developed SIM is introduced. Secondly, the kinematics model is established on the platform of the self-developed SIM, and the updated Sage–Husa adaptive Kalman filter, which is an accurate and real-time self-adaptive filtering algorithm, is applied in the navigation of the SIM with the aim of improving the positioning accuracy. Finally, experiment verifications were carried out, and the results show that the self-developed SIM has good navigation performance. Besides this, the influence of abnormal observations on the positioning accuracy of the system can be restrained by using the updated Sage–Husa adaptive Kalman filter. After using the updated Sage–Husa adaptive Kalman filter for the SIM, the maximum deviation between the SIM and the predetermined path is 0.18 m, and the average deviation is 0.08 m; these deviations are within a reasonable range. This proves that the updated Sage–Husa adaptive Kalman filter is applicable for the navigation of sprinkler irrigation machines. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Precision Agriculture and Irrigation)

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29 pages, 4199 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Energy Reduction and Uniformity of Low-Pressure Online Drip Irrigation Emitters in Field Tests

by Julia Sokol, Susan Amrose, Vinay Nangia, Samer Talozi, Elizabeth Brownell, Gianni Montanaro, Khaled Abu Naser, Khalil Bany Mustafa, Abdeljabar Bahri, Bassou Bouazzama, Abdelaziz Bouizgaren, Naem Mazahrih, Rachid Moussadek, Lhassane Sikaoui and Amos G. Winter

Water 2019, 11(6), 1195; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/w11061195 - 07 Jun 2019

Cited by 12 | Viewed by 5390

Abstract

A promising way of addressing the issue of growing water scarcity is through wider use of drip irrigation, which delivers water and fertilizer to crops in a slow, targeted manner, and has been shown to increase yields and water use efficiency. Yet, drip irrigation system adoption is low, primarily due to the high capital cost of the pressurized piping network and the pump, and operating energy cost. Lowering the water pressure needed for drip emitters to deliver water can reduce both capital and operating costs of drip systems. Here we present the results from field trials of new pressure-compensating online drip emitters that operate with a minimum compensating inlet pressure of 15 kPa (0.15 bar), in comparison to typical commercial emitters with minimum pressures of 50–100 kPa (0.5–1.0 bar). The field trials were carried out on nine farms in Morocco and Jordan over the course of one irrigation season with freshwater and treated wastewater. Low-pressure emitters are shown to reduce hydraulic energy per unit volume of water delivered by 43% on average compared to commercial emitters, without significantly sacrificing water emission uniformity (low-pressure emitters show uniformities of 81–91%, compared to 87–96% for commercial emitters). This energy reduction could lead to savings of 22–31% in the capital cost of a pump and emitters and the energy cost for a typical drip irrigation system. Thus, the low-pressure online emitters can be used as substitutes to commercial emitters that require higher water pressures, leading to reduced environmental impact and lower system costs. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Precision Agriculture and Irrigation)

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20 pages, 3697 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Response of Vertical Migration and Leaching of Nitrogen in Percolation Water of Paddy Fields under Water-Saving Irrigation and Straw Return Conditions

by Chengxin Zheng, Zhanyu Zhang, Yunyu Wu and Richwell Mwiya

Water 2019, 11(4), 868; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/w11040868 - 25 Apr 2019

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 4620

Abstract

The use of water-saving irrigation techniques has been encouraged in rice fields in response to irrigation water scarcity. Straw return is an important means of straw reuse. However, the environmental impact of this technology, e.g., nitrogen leaching loss, must be further explored. A two-year (2017–2018) experiment was conducted to investigate the vertical migration and leaching of nitrogen in paddy fields under water-saving and straw return conditions. Treatments included traditional flood irrigation (FI) and two water-saving irrigation regimes: rain-catching and controlled irrigation (RC-CI) and drought planting with straw mulching (DP-SM). RC-CI and DP-SM both significantly decreased the irrigation input compared with FI. RC-CI increased the rice yield by 8.23%~12.26%, while DP-SM decreased it by 8.98%~15.24% compared with FI. NH₄⁺-N was the main form of the nitrogen leaching loss in percolation water, occupying 49.06%~50.97% of TN leaching losses. The NH₄⁺-N and TN concentration showed a decreasing trend from top to bottom in soil water of 0~54 cm depth, while the concentration of NO₃⁻-N presented the opposite behavior. The TN and NH₄⁺-N concentrations in percolation water of RC-CI during most of the rice growth stage were the highest among treatments in both years, and DP-SM showed a trend of decreasing TN and NH₄⁺-N concentrations. The NO₃⁻-N concentrations in percolation water showed a regular pattern of DP-SM > RC-CI > FI during most of the rice growth stage. RC-CI and DP-SM remarkably reduced the amount of N leaching losses compared to FI as a result of the significant decrease of percolation water volumes. The tillering and jointing-booting stages were the two critical periods of N leaching (accounted for 74.85%~86.26% of N leaching losses). Great promotion potential of RC-CI and DP-SM exists in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, China, and DP-SM needs to be further optimized. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Precision Agriculture and Irrigation)

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18 pages, 6354 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Effects of Biochar Application and Irrigation Methods on Soil Temperature in Farmland

by Yanhong Ding, Xiaoyu Gao, Zhongyi Qu, Yonglin Jia, Min Hu and Changjian Li

Water 2019, 11(3), 499; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/w11030499 - 10 Mar 2019

Cited by 28 | Viewed by 3949

Abstract

Soil temperature plays a vital role in determining crop yield. Excessive irrigation may result in low soil temperature and a waste of water resources. In this paper, field experiments were carried out to evaluate the influence of irrigation methods and biochar application on soil temperature. The experiment included six treatments: (a) YB: biochar application in border irrigation with Yellow River water; (b) GB: biochar application in border irrigation with groundwater; (c) DB: biochar application in drip irrigation with groundwater; (d) Y(CK): border irrigation with Yellow River water; (e) G(CK): border irrigation with groundwater; (f) D(CK): drip irrigation with groundwater. The results are as follows: coupling drip irrigation and biochar, soil temperature increased by 1.20–3.87%. In the biochar application in border irrigation with Yellow River water and groundwater, soil temperature increased by 0.80–2.40% and 1.01–5.15%, respectively. Biochar is a medium for reducing the heat exchange of soil and atmosphere, as it hinders bi-directional heat movement. This mechanism was especially apparent at a 0–10 cm soil depth in the treatments of border irrigation using Yellow River water and groundwater. Biochar may help stabilize the fluctuation of soil temperature and improve the soil accumulated temperature. The effect of drip irrigation at 5–10 cm depth, border irrigation using the groundwater and the Yellow River water was great on soil temperatures above the 10 cm level but less on deep soil temperatures. After applying biochar to soil, the soil temperature was more sensitive to external temperature changes, such as air temperature and water temperature. Therefore, in the Hetao irrigation area, applying a proper amount of biochar to farmland soil was shown to improve the water and heat environment and improve the effectiveness of traditional border irrigation in synchronizing water and heat, especially under the drip irrigation condition. The results here suggest that using biochar under drip irrigation can promote growth and increase yield. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Precision Agriculture and Irrigation)

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16 pages, 3556 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Modeling Two-Dimensional Infiltration with Constant and Time-Variable Water Depth

by Vladimir Castanedo, Heber Saucedo and Carlos Fuentes

Water 2019, 11(2), 371; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/w11020371 - 21 Feb 2019

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 3209

Abstract

Water infiltration is simulated by obtaining the time infiltrated depth evolution and humidity profiles with the numerical solution of the two-dimensional Richards’ equation. The contact time hypothesis is accepted in this study and used to apply a unique form on time of the water depth evolution in the solution domain (furrow), as boundary condition. The specific form of such evolution in time was obtained from results reported in the literature based on the internal numerical full coupling of the Saint-Venant and Richards’ equations in border irrigation. Moreover, the equivalent hydraulic area between the border and the furrow was achieved by scaling the values of water depth. The analysis was made for three contrasting soil textures, and the comparison was done by computing the root mean square error (RMSE) indicator. The comparison was performed from the selection of five finite element meshes with different densities to discretize the solution domain of the two-dimensional Richards’ equation, combined with several time steps. Finally, a comparison was made between infiltrated depth evolution calculated with a constant water depth in the furrow to the one proposed in this work, finding important differences between both approaches. To expand the scope of this study and for a fuller exploration of the subject, the results were compared with results obtained by applying the HYDRUS-2D software. The results confirm that it is important to consider an internal full coupling of the Saint-Venant and Richards´ equations to improve furrow irrigation simulations. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Precision Agriculture and Irrigation)

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13 pages, 13316 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Experimental and Simulation Investigation on the Kinetic Energy Dissipation Rate of a Fixed Spray-Plate Sprinkler

by Yisheng Zhang, Bin Sun, Hongyuan Fang, Delan Zhu, Lingxia Yang and Zhansong Li

Water 2018, 10(10), 1365; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/w10101365 - 30 Sep 2018

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 3026

Abstract

Sprinkler irrigation is promoted due to its remarkable advantages in water conservation, but the high energy consumption limits its development in a situation of energy scarcity. In order to determine the energy consumption of a fixed spray-plate sprinkler (FSPS), its discharge and initial trajectory velocity were investigated using a particle image velocimetry (PIV) technique and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analyses. A nozzle diameter of 4.76 mm was used under windless conditions. Overall, good agreement between simulation results and experimental values was obtained. On the premise that the simulation method produced high accuracy, a series of simulations was performed with different nozzle diameters. The water distribution pattern, stream trajectory velocity and kinetic energy dissipation were analyzed. The results show that the jet produced at the nozzle is split by grooves after it hits the plate, with separation occurring earlier with decreasing nozzle diameter. The area of the flow cross-section of the outlet is mainly influenced by nozzle diameter rather than working pressure. The initial trajectory velocity of the grooves increases logarithmically with increasing working pressure. A high working pressure may not cause large kinetic energy dissipation. The dissipation rate of the FSPS ranged from 28.01–50.97%, i.e., a large kinetic energy rate was observed. To reduce this energy dissipation and improve water use efficiency, the structure of the FSPS should be optimized in further research. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Precision Agriculture and Irrigation)

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