Groundwater Recharge Assessment of Different Irrigation Scenarios by Using Unsaturated Zone Modeling (Case Study: Neishabour Plain)

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Msc. Graduate of Irrigation and Drainage, Department of Water Engineering, College of Agriculture, University of Ferdowsi, Mashhad, Iran

2 َAssociate Professor, Department Water Engineering, College Agriculture, Ferdowsi University, Mashhad, Iran

3 Department Water Engineering, College Agriculture, Ferdowsi University, Mashhad, Iran

4 Professor of Water Engineering Department, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran

Abstract

Since many parts of Iran are located in arid and semi-arid regions of the world, groundwater recharge is an important component of the water cycle in these areas. In this paper, groundwater recharge under different irrigation scenarios for thirty logs lied in Neishabour plain was investigated. Daily data, including precipitation, evapotranspiration and leaf area index were used to run HYDRUS-1D software. Thirty observation logs with different depths of water table were selected at different locations in the plain. Analysis of the recharge rate in the wheat-fallow scenario showed that for different soil textures, groundwater recharge is dependent on the number of irrigation applications. For the logs with sandy soil textures, the maximum amount of recharge was obtained in five irrigation events scenario by an average of 325.23 mm year-1. For the logs with sandy clay loam soil texture, the highest recharge rate was obtained in the seven irrigation events scenario by an average of 67.43 mm per year-1. In the logs dug in loamy soil texture, due to the high depth of the soil block, the same recharge rate was obtained at different scenarios. In the case of a double-cropping scenario, groundwater recharge increased due to irrigation of tomato in summer. In this scenario, the highest recharge rate was obtained in observation log drilled in sandy soil texture with a depth of 15 m which was equal to 440.47 mm year-1.

Keywords

Main Subjects


Allen, R.G., Pereira, L.S., Raes, D. and Smith, M., (1998). Crop Evapotranspiration-Guidelines for Computing Crop Water Requirements-FAO Irrigation and Drainage Paper 56 300. FAO, Rome, pp. 1–159 D05109.
Beykzadeh, E., Ziaei, A. N., Ansari H. and Lak R., Zaki M. (2016). Comparison of groundwater recharge in a sprinkler- and furrow-irrigated field using unsaturated zone modeling. Iranian Journal of Soil and Water Research. 47(1), 147-158. (In Farsi)
Carsel, R.F. and Parrish, R.S. (1988). Developing joint probability distributions of soil water retention characteristics. Water Resources Research. 24, 755–769.
Ebrahimian, H. and Hassanli, M. (2016) Irrigation and groundwater recharge. Tehran: Iran Water Resources Management Company, Iranian National Committee on Irrigation and Drainage (IRNCID). (In Farsi)
Feddes, R.A., Kowalik, P.J. and Zaradny, H. (1978). Simulation of Field Water Use and Crop Yield. John Wiley and Sons, New York, NY.
Gassman, P. W., Reyes, M. R., Green, C. H., and Arnold, J. G. (2007). The soil and water assessment tool: historical development, applications, and future research directions. Transactions of the ASABE, 50(4), 1211-1250.
Harbaugh, A. W. (2005). MODFLOW-2005, the US Geological Survey modular ground-water model: the ground-water flow process (pp. 6-A16). Reston, VA: US Department of the Interior, US Geological Survey.
Izady, A. (2011). Application and Assessment of a Developed Coupled-Groundwater–Surface Water Model in the Neishaboor Watershed. Ph.D. dissertation, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad (FUM), Mashhad. (In Farsi)
Jafari, H., Raeisi, E., Hoehn, E. and Zare, M. (2012). Hydrochemical characteristics of irrigation return flow in semi-arid regions of Iran. Hydrological sciences journal, 57(1), 173-185.
Jiménez-Martínez, J., Skaggs, T. H., Van Genuchten, M. T. and Candela, L. (2009). A root zone modelling approach to estimating groundwater recharge from irrigated areas. Journal of Hydrology, 367(1-2), 138-149.
Lak, R. (2014). Estimation of groundwater recharge in irrigated farms using unsaturated zone modeling, case study: Neyshabour Plain. MSc. Thesis, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad (FUM), Mashhad. (In Farsi)
Min, L., Shen, Y. and Pei, H. (2015). Estimating groundwater recharge using deep vadose zone data under typical irrigated cropland in the piedmont region of the North China Plain. Journal of Hydrology, 527, 305-315.
Naghedifar, S. M., Ziaei, A. N. and Ansari, H. (2018). Simulation of irrigation return flow from a Triticale farm under sprinkler and furrow irrigation systems using experimental data: A case study in arid region. Agricultural water management, 210, 185-197.
Nazarieh, F., Ansari, H., Ziaei, A. N., Izady, A., Davari, K. and Brunner, P. (2018). Spatial and temporal dynamics of deep percolation, lag time and recharge in an irrigated semi-arid region. Hydrogeology Journal, 26(7), 2507-2520.
Richards, L. A. (1931). Capillary conduction of liquids through porous mediums. Journal of Applied Physics, 1(5), 318-333.
Šimůnek, J., Šejna, M., Saito, H., Sakai, M., van Genuchten, M.T., (2018). The HYDRUS- 1D software package for simulating the one-dimensional movement of water, heat, and multiple Solutes in variably-saturated Media, Version 4.17. Department of Environmental Sciences, University of California Riverside, Riverside, California, USA.
Šimůnek, J. and Hopmans, J. W. (2009). Modeling compensated root water and nutrient uptake. Ecological modelling, 220(4), 505-521.
Skaggs, T. H., van Genuchten, M. T., Shouse, P. J. and Poss, J. A. (2006). Macroscopic approaches to root water uptake as a function of water and salinity stress. Agricultural Water Management, 86(1-2), 140-149.
Szymkiewicz, A., Savard, J. and Jaworska-Szulc, B. (2019). Numerical Analysis of Recharge Rates and Contaminant Travel Time in Layered Unsaturated Soils. Water, 11(3), 545.
Twarakavi, N. K. C., Šimůnek, J., and Seo, S. (2008). Evaluating interactions between groundwater and vadose zone using the HYDRUS-based flow package for MODFLOW. Vadose Zone Journal, 7(2), 757-768.
van Genuchten, M. T. (1980). A closed-form equation for predicting the hydraulic conductivity of unsaturated soils. Soil science society of America journal, 44(5), 892-898.
Zaki, M. (2013). Estimation of groundwater recharge from irrigated fields using zero flux method. MSc. Thesis, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad (FUM), Mashhad. (In Farsi)