Redistribution Mechanism for Irrigation Water and Salinity in Typical Irrigation and Drainage Unit in the Hetao Irrigation District, China
Publication: Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Volume 148, Issue 7
Abstract
This study clarified the migration and accumulation patterns of irrigation water and associated salt in a cropland irrigation and drainage unit and evaluated the water-use rationality of the irrigation and drainage unit in the Hetao Irrigation District. A typical lateral canal-scale irrigation and drainage system was selected, the planting pattern of which was complex and included interplanted crops and interlaced cultivated land and wasteland. The overall regional water balance model for the study area was established based on the monitoring data from a two-year field experiment from 2018 to 2019, and the dissipation of irrigation water and the redistribution of soil water and salt were investigated. The obtained specific water yield of the study area was 0.0443. In 2019, water conveyance losses from canals accounted for approximately 18% of the total water diversion, the irrigation water entering cropland through field canals (i.e., field irrigation) accounted for 77.2%, and surface drainage accounted for 4.8%. There is a lateral exchange of groundwater between different land types. After crops use irrigation water in the field, groundwater replenishes approximately 7% of the total water diversion to the field, wasteland consumes 6% of the total water diversion, and the utilization mode also is groundwater replenishment. In the cropland, evapotranspiration (ET) consumption accounted for 84.2% of the total water diversion, and salt accumulation accounted for 14.2% of the total salt introduced, whereas in the wasteland, ET consumption accounted for 6% of the total water diversion, and salt accumulation accounted for 44.2% of the total salt introduced. Although the wasteland area constituted only 5.43% of the total study area, it functioned as a salt storage area and played a vital role in dry drainage desalting. Maintaining an appropriate wasteland area and improving the drainage system could facilitate desalination and sustainable ecological development in the study area. The results provide a reference for water and salt regulation and modern ecological irrigation district management in similar irrigation districts.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. Some or all data, models, or code generated or used during the study are proprietary or confidential in nature and may be provided only with restrictions. The data used are also a part of the data for another manuscript. The other manuscript is still in process and has not been published, so the data are confidential and temporarily cannot be shared. If the manuscript is published, we are willing to share some of the data used here. These data include the data of various elements in the water balance model, land-use type data, planting structure data, and irrigation diversion and drainage data.
Acknowledgments
This study was funded by the Key Project of the National Natural Science Foundation, Nos. 51539005 and 51769024; the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region 13th Five-Year Water Conservancy Science and Technology Major Project 213-03-99-303002-NSK2017-M1; and the Talent introduction excellent doctoral research project NDYB2017-34. Wencong Zhang conducted the statistical analysis and wrote the paper. The research ideas and methods were affirmed by Haibin Shi, who helped to revise the paper. Zhen Li, Weigang Wang, Xiaojun Fu, and Zhengzhong Li helped with data collection.
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Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Volume 148 • Issue 7 • July 2022
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© 2022 American Society of Civil Engineers.
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Received: May 18, 2021
Accepted: Dec 16, 2021
Published online: Apr 30, 2022
Published in print: Jul 1, 2022
Discussion open until: Sep 30, 2022
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