Improving the Drainage and Irrigation Efficiency of Lowland Soils: Land-Forming Options for Southern Brazil
Publication: Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Volume 146, Issue 8
Abstract
Land leveling is used to correct soil surface irregularities to improve surface drainage and irrigation. It also makes the area more manageable for an array of agricultural activities such as planting and harvesting. The objective of this work was to evaluate two designs of land forming, one aimed at optimizing drainage and the other at optimizing surface irrigation, using fields with reliefs typical of the lowlands of southern Brazil. Seven commercial rice fields, ranging in size from 7 to 26 ha, were randomly selected and digital elevation designs generated for each. Land-leveling projects were developed using three designs: uniform slope (US) (control), land forming–drainage (LFD), and land forming–irrigation (LFI). Performance comparisons between the designs were evaluated through impacts on soil movement (SM), maximum cut in 99% of the area (MC), cumulative length of levees (LL), and total number of levees (NL). Results indicate that both LFD and LFI designs would reduce costs and require less soil disturbance compared to leveling to uniform slopes. LFD would require less soil movement and lower maximum cuts than LFI. However, LFI would reduce the lengths and numbers of rice levees that could have long-term economic and agronomic benefits not captured in these analyses. These results demonstrate that all land-leveling and land-forming alternatives should be thoroughly examined before undertaking field operations. Study outcomes will be useful to engineers and producers in evaluating options to improve the agricultural productivity of lowlands in southern Brazil, a region of national and international significance.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all digital elevation models and project models generated in the paper are available from the corresponding author by request, including data for the DEMs of all fields; the uniform slope, land forming for drainage, and land forming for irrigation projects of all fields; the levees and drainage projects of all fields; and the table with amounts of soil movement (); maximum cut in 99% of the area (cm), total length of levees (km), and number of levees data of each field for the graphs generation.
Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge the Trimble Company for providing the WM-Form and Farm Works software necessary to conduct this research.
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Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Volume 146 • Issue 8 • August 2020
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©2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
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Received: Apr 2, 2019
Accepted: Feb 11, 2020
Published online: May 21, 2020
Published in print: Aug 1, 2020
Discussion open until: Oct 21, 2020
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