Regional Assessment of Soil Water Salinity across an Intensively Irrigated River Valley
Publication: Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Volume 138, Issue 5
Abstract
Extensive field investigations allowed depiction of soil water salinity within two large representative regions of a river valley that has been irrigated for more than 120 years. The nature and severity of the salinity problem is captured by hundreds of field surveys, encompassing tens of thousands of measurements and spanning 9 years. Soil water extract salinity, averaged over all surveys and all measured locations, is in the Upstream Study Region and in the Downstream Study Region. Variability over the measurements is substantial, with a coefficient of variation of approximately 0.51 Upstream and 0.39 Downstream. Relationships to soil and groundwater conditions also were explored, providing field-based insights into major contributing factors and into the value of measuring those factors as part of a salinity reconnaissance. A broad survey, like that described herein, affords a sense of the magnitude of economic loss, in terms of crop-yield reduction, that is exacted by irrigation-induced salinity. Evaluation of the measurements in relation to an estimated average threshold for crop-yield reduction indicates that approximately 42% of the more than 122,000 locations surveyed over both regions had values exceeding the corresponding threshold. Average yield reductions due to soil water salinity are approximately 6% over surveyed locations Upstream and 17% over locations Downstream. Moreover, survey results point toward general targets for irrigation and drainage planning and form a basis for the development of more detailed solutions using computational modeling.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
This study was made possible by the interested cooperation of more than 120 landowners and growers in the Arkansas River Valley. Financial support was provided by grants from the Colorado Agricultural Experiment Station, the Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District, the Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District, the Colorado Water Conservation Board, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, the Colorado Division of Water Resources, the Colorado Water Institute, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR), the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), and the Bent County Soil Conservation District. Numerous agencies have provided valuable cooperative assistance, including the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, the District 2 Office of the Colorado Division of Water Resources, the Pueblo Subdistrict Office of the USGS, and the USDA Farm Services Agency. The authors appreciate the able assistance of Chad Bohac and Justin Kattnig in statistical analysis and preparation of figures; Jim zumBrunnen in setting up, running, and troubleshooting the SAS model; and Julien Moeys and Dr. David Scott in the application of R. The authors thank the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and recommendations. The views and conclusions contained in this document are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as representing the opinions or policies of the U.S. government. Mention of trade names or commercial products does not constitute their endorsement by the U.S. government.
References
Acquaah, G. (2005). Principles of crop production: Theory, techniques, and technology, 2nd Ed., Pearson Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ.
Bastiaanssen, W., Molden, D., and Makin, I. (2000). “Remote sensing for irrigated agriculture: Examples from research and possible applications.” Agric. Water Manage.AWMADF, 46(2), 137–155.
Burkhalter, J. P., and Gates, T. K. (2005). “Agroecological impacts from salinization and waterlogging in an irrigated river valley.” J. Irrig. Drain. Eng.JIDEDH, 131(2), 197–209.
Burkhalter, J. P., and Gates, T. K. (2006). “Evaluating regional solutions to salinization and waterlogging in an irrigated river valley.” J. Irrig. Drain. Eng.JIDEDH, 132(1), 21–30.
Cassel, F., Goorahoo, D., Zoldoske, D., and Adhikari, D. (2008). “Mapping soil salinity using ground-based electromagnetic induction.” Remote sensing of soil salinization: Impact on land management, Metternicht, G. and Zinck, J., eds., CRC Press, Taylor & Francis, Boca Raton, FL.
Corwin, D., and Lesch, S. (2003). “Application of soil electrical conductivity to precision agriculture: Theory, principles, and guidelines.” Agron. J.AGJOAT, 95(3), 455–471.
Cooper, C. A. (2006). “Salt chemistry effects on salinity assessment and soil solution modeling in the Arkansas River basin, Colorado.” Ph.D. thesis, Dept. of Soil and Crop Sciences, Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO.
Eldeiry, A. (2006). “Spatial modeling of soil salinity using remote sensing, GIS, and field data.” Ph.D. thesis, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO.
Eldeiry, A. A., and Garcia, L. A. (2008). “Detecting soil salinity in alfalfa fields using spatial modeling and remote sensing.” Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J.SSSJD4, 72(1), 201–211.
Elhaddad, A. (2007). “Use of remote sensing to estimate soil salinity and evapotranspiration in agricultural fields.” Ph.D. thesis, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO.
Gates, T. K., Burkhalter, J. P., Labadie, J. W., Valliant, J. C., and Broner, I. (2002). “Monitoring and modeling flow and salt transport in a salinity-threatened irrigated valley.” J. Irrig. Drain. Eng.JIDEDH, 128(2), 87–99.
Gates, T. K., Garcia, L. A., and Labadie, J. W. (2006). “Toward optimal water management in Colorado’s Lower Arkansas River Valley: Monitoring and modeling to enhance agriculture and environment.” Colorado Water Resource Research Institute Completion Rep. No. 205, Colorado Agricultural Experimental Station Tech. Rep. TR06-10, Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO.
Gates, T. K., Cody, B. M., Herting, A. W., Donnelly, J. P., Bailey, R. T., and Mueller Price, J. (2009). “Assessing selenium contamination in the irrigated stream-aquifer system of the Arkansas River, Colorado.” J. Environ. Qual.JEVQAA, 38(6), 2344–2356.
Gates, T. K., Garcia, L. A., Hemphill, R. A., Morway, E. D., and Elhaddad, A. (2012). “Irrigation practices, water consumption, & return flows in Colorado’s Lower Arkansas River Valley: Final report of field and model investigations 2004–2008.” Colorado Water Institute Completion Rep. No. 221, Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO.
Gee, G. W., and Bauder, J. W. (1986). “Particle-size analysis.” Methods of soil analysis, Part 1, Klute, A., ed., 2nd Ed., Agron. Monogr. 9, American Society of Agronomy, Inc. (ASA) and Soil Science Society of America (SSSA), Madison, WI, 383–411.
Ghassemi, F., Jakeman, A., and Nix, H. (1995). Salinisation of land and water resources: Human causes, extent, management and case studies, Univ. New South Wales Press, Ltd., Sydney, Australia.
Gillham, D. J. (2004). “Data and modeling of irrigated fields with saline high water tables.” M.S. thesis, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO.
Goff, K., Lewis, M. E., Person, M. A., and Konikow, L. F. (1998). “Simulated effects of irrigation on salinity in the Arkansas River Valley in Colorado.” Ground WaterGRWAAP, 36(1), 76–86.
Hanson, B., Grattan, S. R., and Fulton, A. (1999). “Agricultural salinity and drainage.” Div. of Agriculture and Natural Resources Publ. 2275, Univ. of California Irrigation Program, Univ. of California, Davis, CA.
Hendrickx, J., Raza, B., Sadig, Z., Chaudhry, M., and Akram, M. (1992). “Soil salinity assessment by electromagnetic induction of irrigated land.” Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J.SSSJD4, 56(6), 1933–1941.
Hoffman, G. J., Evans, R. G., Jensen, M. E., Martin, D. L., and Elliott, R. L. (2007). Design and operation of farm irrigation systems, ASABE, St. Joseph, MI.
Katerji, N., van Hoorn, J. W., Hamdy, A., and Mastrorelli, M. (2000). “Salt tolerance classification of crops according to soil salinity and to water stress day index.” Agric. Water Manage.AWMADF, 43(1), 99–109.
Kotuby-Amacher, J., Koenig, R., and Kitchen, B. (2000). “Salinity and plant tolerance.” Rep. AG-SO-03, Cooperative Extension, Utah State Univ., Logan, UT.
Konikow, L. F., and Bredehoeft, J. D. (1974). “Modeling flow and chemical quality changes in an irrigated stream-aquifer system.” Water Resour. Res.WRERAQ, 10(3), 546–562.
Lal, R. (2004). Soil degradation in the United States: Extent, severity, and trends, Lewis Publishers, Boca Raton, FL.
Maas, E. V. (1990). “Crop salt tolerance.” Agricultural salinity assessment and management, ASCE Manuals and Reports on Engineeering Practice No. 71, Tanji, K. K., ed., ASCE, New York, 262–304.
McCullagh, P., and Nelder, J. A. (1989). Generalized linear models, 2nd Ed., Chapman & Hall, London.
Metternicht, G., and Zinck, J. (2003). “Remote sensing of soil salinity: Potentials and constraints.” Remote Sens. Environ.RSEEA7, 85(1), 1–20.
Milliken, G. A., and Johnson, D. E. (1984). Analysis of messy data: Designed experiments, Vol. 1, Chapman and Hall, New York.
Milliken, G. A., and Johnson, D. E. (2002). Analysis of messy data: Analysis of covariance, Vol. 3, Chapman & Hall/CRC, New York.
Mueller Price, J., and Gates, T. K. (2008). “Assessing uncertainty in mass balance calculation of river nonpoint source loads.” J. Environ. Eng.JOEEDU, 134(4), 247–258.
Niemann, J. D., Lehman, B. M., Gates, T. K., and Hallberg, N. U. (2011). “Impact of shallow groundwater on evapotranspiration losses from uncultivated land in an irrigated river valley.” J. Irrig. Drain. Eng.JIDEDH, 137(8), 501–512.
Person, M., and Konikow, L. F. (1986). “Recalibration and predictive reliability of a solute-transport model of an irrigated stream-aquifer system.” J. Hydrol.JHYDA7, 87(1–2), 145–165.
Postel, S. (1999). Pillar of sand: Can the irrigation miracle last?, Norton, New York.
R Development Core Team (2011). “R: A language and environment for statistical computing.” R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. ISBN 3-900051-07-0, 〈http://www.R-project.org〉.
Richards, L. A. (1954). “Diagnosis and improvement of saline and alkali soils.” U.S. salinity laboratory staff agriculture handbook no. 60, USDA, Washington, DC.
Rhoades, J. D., Chanduvi, F., and Lesch, S. (1999). “Soil salinity assessment: Methods and interpretation of electrical conductivity measurements.” Irrigation and Drainage Paper 57, Food and Agriculture Organization United Nations, Rome.
Schaap, M. G., Leij, F. J., and van Genuchten, M. T. (2001). “ROSETTA: A computer program for estimating soil hydraulic parameters with hierarchical pedotransfer functions.” J. Hydrol.JHYDA7, 251(3–4), 163–176.
Shanafield, M., Pohll, G., and Susfalk, R. (2010). “Use of heat-based vertical fluxes to approximate total flux in simple channels.” Water Resour. Res.WRERAQ, 46(3), W03508.
Sherow, J. E. (1990). Water the valley: Development along the High Plains Arkansas River, 1870–1950, Univ. Press of Kansas, Lawrence, KS.
Singh, G., Bundela, D., Sethi, M., Lal, K., and Kamra, S. (2010). “Remote sensing and geographic information system for appraisal of salt-affected soils in India.” J. Environ. Qual.JEVQAA, 39(1), 5–15.
Smedema, L. K., Vlotman, W. F., and Rycroft, D. W. (2004). Modern land drainage: Planning, design and management of agricultural drainage systems, A. A. Balkema, ed., Leiden, The Netherlands.
Susfalk, R. et al. (2008). “Evaluation of linear anionic polyacrylamide (LA-PAM) application to water delivery canals for seepage reduction.” DHS Publ. No. 41245, 〈http://pam.dri.edu/docs/PAM_Field_Studies_041245.pdf〉.
Tanji, K. K. ed. (1990). Agricultural salinity assessment and management, ASCE Manuals and Reports on Engineeering Practice No. 71, ASCE, Reston, VA.
Tanji, K. K., and Kielen, N. C. (2002). “Agricultural drainage water management in arid and semi-arid areas.” Irrigation and Drainage Paper 61, Food and Agriculture Organization United Nations, Rome.
van Schilfgaarde, J. (1984). “Drainage design for salinity control.” Soil salinity under irrigation: Processes and management, Shainberg, I., and Shalhevet, J., eds., Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 190–197.
Wittler, J. M. (2005). “Calibration of electromagnetic sensors for regional salinity assessment in an irrigated river valley.” M.S. thesis, Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, Colo.
Wittler, J. M., Cardon, G. E., Gates, T. K., Cooper, C. A., and Sutherland, P. L. (2006). “Calibration of electromagnetic induction for regional assessment of soil water salinity in an irrigated valley.” J. Irrig. Drain. Eng.JIDEDH, 132(5), 436–444.
Xu, L., Yang, J., Zhang, Q., and Niu, H. (2008). “Modelling water and salt transport in a soil-water-plant system under different groundwater tables.” Water Environ. J.WEJAAB, 22(4), 265–273.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Volume 138 • Issue 5 • May 2012
Pages: 393 - 405
Copyright
© 2012. American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Apr 1, 2011
Accepted: Aug 19, 2011
Published online: Aug 22, 2011
Published in print: May 1, 2012
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.