Modeling the irrigation requirements for an experimental site in Northern Alberta, Canada
- Published
- Accepted
- Subject Areas
- Agricultural Science
- Keywords
- RZWQM, water table, soil water, stochastic rainfall, irrigation
- Copyright
- © 2014 Rahbeh et al.
- Licence
- This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ PrePrints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
- Cite this article
- 2014. Modeling the irrigation requirements for an experimental site in Northern Alberta, Canada. PeerJ PrePrints 2:e696v1 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.696v1
Abstract
A combined methodology of the Root Zone Water Quality Model (RZWQM), the generation of stochastic rainfall realizations, and an historical meteorological record were used to determine the supplementary irrigation requirement for an experimental site located in northern Alberta. The site receives an annual rainfall of approximately 500 mm yr -1, and contains a fluctuating water table. The simulated results showed maximum irrigation requirements of 270 mm, however, half that amount can be required during an average or wet growing season of mean rainfall of 350 and 500 mm, respectively. The irrigation requirements were influenced by rainfall amount and distribution, downward flux and the subsequent fluctuation of the water table and the depth of water table at the beginning of the growing season, which was influenced by the winter season precipitation. The simulated results suggested that a water table less than 2 m deep from the ground surface can significantly reduce the irrigation requirements. Therefore, the winter precipitation and initial depth of the water table are suitable indicators of the likely requirement of irrigation during the growing season.
Author Comment
The main objective of this article was to determine the irrigation requirements using a combined methodology of the Root Zone water quality Model (RZWQM) and stochastic rainfall generation. The results of this study are a significant step toward the management of effluent water in northern Alberta. The authors are also confident that it will enrich the published literature on irrigation scheduling.