JWSS - Journal of Water and Soil Science

In this research, the hydraulic behavior of furrow irrigation was investigated under cut-back, Walker-Skogerboe and conventional methods at the three experimental farms of Lavark, Shervedan, and Isfahan University of Technology for three irrigation events. In each farm, data were collected for each of the above methods with at least three replications including furrow shape, furrow length, furrow slope, soil texture, advance and furrow inflow and outflow.

 The parameters of Kostiakov-Lewis infiltration function were determined using the volume balance method. The deep percolation ratio, runoff ratio and application efficiency were then computed.

The results showed that deep percolation ratio was higher in the cut-back method as compared to the Walker-Skogerboe method (18.6% as compared to 13.7%) and the runoff ratio was less in the cut-back method as compared to those in the Walker-Skogerboe and conventional methods (12.4% as compared to 16 and 20.6%, respectively). The effect of the two parameters of deep percolation ratio and runoff ratio caused, in general, the application efficiency to be less in the conventional method than those in the cut-back and Walker-Skogerboe methods (42.7% as compared to 69 and 70%, respectively). In general, the cut-back method had a higher application efficiency in heavy texture soils as compared to light texture soils (73.9% as compared to 51.2%).