Design and Management of Subsurface Horizontal Drainage to Reduce Salt Loads
Publication: Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Volume 127, Issue 3
Abstract
Many irrigated areas have shallow water tables creating waterlogging and salinization problems. This has often been controlled by installation of subsurface horizontal pipe drainage; however, these systems export large amounts of salt off farm in the drainage effluent. Improved design and management of subsurface drainage systems to reduce drainage salt loads were tested in a replicated field experiment. Deep, widely spaced drains allowed to flow without control were compared to drains with management to reduce drain flow. These were also compared with shallow, closely spaced drains that protected the root zone only and an undrained control. The deep drains flowed continuously during the two irrigation seasons with an electrical conductivity of around 11 dS/m resulting in a drainage salt load of 5,867 kg/ha. The management measures reduced drainage volume and salinity resulting in a 50% reduction in salt load. The shallow drains only flowed directly after an irrigation or rainfall event with low salinity, around 2 dS/m, resulting in a 95% reduction in salt load. This showed that by management there is great potential for reducing salt mobilization in existing drainage systems, and for new systems shallower drains will minimize salt loads.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
1.
Ayars, J. E. ( 1996). “Managing irrigation and drainage systems in arid areas in the presence of shallow ground water: Case studies.” Irrig. and Drain. Sys., Dordrecht, The Netherlands, 10, 227–244.
2.
Ayars, J. E., and Hutmacher, R. B. ( 1994). “Crop coefficients for irrigating cotton in the presence of ground water.” Irrig. Sci., Berlin, 15(1), 45–52.
3.
Butler, B. E. ( 1979). “A soil survey of the Horticultural Soils in the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Areas, New South Wales.” Bull. No. 289, CSIRO, Melbourne.
4.
Christen, E., and Moll, J. ( 1996). “Drainage systems for new vineyards on heavy clay soils.” Farmers Newsletter No. 180, Horticulture, Irrigation Research & Extension Committee, Griffith, Australia, Sept.
5.
Christen, E., Muirhead, W., and Moll, J. ( 1995). “First patented in 1797 available now in the MIA, 1995!!” Farmers Newsletter No. 145, Large Area, Irrigation Research & Extension Committee, Griffith, Australia, Jun.
6.
Christen, E. W. ( 1997). “Using mole drains in horticulture.” Proc., Horticulture Downunder, Conf. on Sustainable Soil and Water Mgmt. for Commercial Horticulture in Southeastern Australia, New South Wales Agriculture, Bathurst, Australia, 89–94.
7.
Christen, E. W., and Skehan, D. ( 1999). “Design and management of subsurface drainage for improved water quality: A field investigation.” Tech. Rep. 6/99. CSIRO Land and Water, Griffith, Australia.
8.
Christen, E. W., and Spoor, G. (1999). “Controlling irrigation water flow to mole drains.”J. Irrig. and Drain. Engrg., ASCE, 125(2), 59–63.
9.
Deverel, S. J., and Fio, J. L. ( 1991). “Ground-water flow and solute movement to drain laterals, western San Joaquin Valley, California 1. Geochemical assessment. Water Resour. Res., 27(9), 2233–2246.
10.
Fouss, J. L., Skaggs, R. W., Ayars, J. E., and Belcher, H. W. ( 1990). “Watertable control and shallow ground-water utilization.” Management of farm irrigation systems, G. J. Hoffman, T. A. Howell, and K. H. Solomon, eds., ASAE, St. Joseph, Mich., 783–784.
11.
Mateos, L., Meyer, W. S., Smith, R. C. G., and Sides, R. ( 1990). “Evaluation of radiant canopy temperature and soil water measurement for quantifying the contribution of shallow water tables to crop evaluation.” Australian J. Soil Res., 28, 1013–1022.
12.
Meyer, W. S., Dugas, W. A., Barrs, H. D., Smith, R. C. G., and Fleetwood, R. J. ( 1990). “Effects of soil type on soybean crop water use in weighing lysimeters. I. Evaporation.” Irrig. Sci., Berlin, 11, 69–75.
13.
Muirhead, W. A., Humphreys, E., Jayawardane, N. S., and Moll, J. L. ( 1996). “Shallow subsurface drainage in an irrigated vertisol with a perched water table.” Agric. Water Mgmt., Amsterdam, 30(1996), 261–282.
14.
Smedema, L. K., and Rycroft, D. W. ( 1988). Land drainage—Planning and design of agricultural drainage systems, Anchor Brendon Ltd., Great Britain.
15.
Spoor, G. ( 1994). “Application of mole drainage in the solution of subsoil management problems.” Advances in soil science, subsoil management techniques, N. S. Jayawardene and B. A. Stewart, eds., Lewis, Boca Raton, Fla., 67–107.
16.
Stevens, R. M., and Prior, L. D. ( 1994). “The effect of transient water-logging on the growth, leaf gas exchange, and mineral composition of potted sultana grapevines.” Am. J. Enol. Vitic., 45(3), 285–290.
17.
Talsma, T. ( 1963). The control of saline ground water, Meded Landbouwhogeschool, Wageningen.
18.
Tod, I. C., and Grismer, M. E. (1991). “Drainage of clay overlying artesian aquifer. II: Technical analysis.”J. Irrig. and Drain. Engrg., ASCE, 117(2), 271–284.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
History
Received: Aug 24, 2000
Published online: Jun 1, 2001
Published in print: Jun 2001
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.