JWSS - Journal of Water and Soil Science

Soil moisture is one of the main input parameters in many models for monitoring and predicting crop yield. The ability of mathematical models has allowed correct application of brackish water and selection of management options. The purpose of this research was to evaluate the performance of HYDRUS-2D for simulating soil volumetric water content in a heterogeneous heavy soil under field conditions. Three volumes of irrigation water (10, 15 and 20 L) and three salinity levels of irrigation water (1.279, 2.5 and 5 dSm^-1) were exerted in a linear drip irrigation system with three replications. In order to check the amount of soil volumetric water content, soil profiles were drilled to 40 cm depth and vertical wall of drip irrigation line was networked. Soil volumetric water content was measured with a TDR MiniTrase kit 6050X3K1B model. The observed soil moisture values were compared with the simulated ones using statistical indices (i.e. nRMSE and CRM).  The results indicated that mean soil volumetric water content distribution in irrigation water with different levels of salinities was in the range of field capacity. The range of nRMSE values varied from 0.91 to 2.07 percent in different replications. According to calculated nRMSE values, performance of the simulation model, was ranked as excellent for simulation of soil volumetric water content. Range of CRM values was shown to be from -0.0080 to 0.0170 that was really low. Results of these two statistics indicate high ability of the model in simulating soil volumetric water content using estimating hydraulic parameters by inverse solution.