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Research and Application of Water Saving-Related Irrigation Theory or Technology

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A special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441). This special issue belongs to the section "Water, Agriculture and Aquaculture".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (25 November 2023) | Viewed by 2937

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Shouzheng Jiang

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Guest Editor

College of Water Rescource & Hydropower, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
Interests: evapotranspiration; water use efficiency; water-saving irrigation; water cycle; drought; eddy convariance system

Dr. Jing Zheng

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu, China
Interests: high efficiency of water and fertilizer; microirrigation; water transport process; greenhouse gas emission

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

With global and regional climate change, the original atmospheric circulation model, the thermodynamic process of the hydrological cycle, and the space–time process of precipitation and evapotranspiration are significantly influenced, thus further affecting human utilization of water resources. Furthermore, the continuous growth of the population and the rapid development of industry and agriculture have also exacerbated the shortage of water resources. Irrigated agriculture, as one of the main water-consuming sectors, is not only responsible for global food security but faces the challenge of substantial water savings. Over the past 20 years, scientists have conducted a substantial amount of research on the impact of water-saving irrigation on crop production. However, there is still a lack of systematic understanding of the impact of new water-saving irrigation equipment, technologies, mechanisms, and management models on improving agricultural water use efficiency. We are organizing this Special Issue to call on colleagues to study the impact of new irrigation equipment, technologies, and management methods on irrigation water resource utilization from different perspectives, and to make contributions to a systematic understanding of the response of the crop water absorption and transformation processes to new irrigation equipment and technologies.

Dr. Shouzheng Jiang
Dr. Jing Zheng
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Water is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

water-saving irrigation
water use efficiency
crop evapotranspiration
crop water-saving mechanism
water-saving equipment

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

19 pages, 7231 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Comparison of Water Utilization Patterns of Sunflowers and Maize at Different Fertility Stages along the Yellow River

by Rui He, Changfu Tong, Jun Wang and Hexiang Zheng

Water 2024, 16(2), 198; https://doi.org/10.3390/w16020198 - 5 Jan 2024

Viewed by 804

Abstract

Currently, there is a limited supply of freshwater on a worldwide scale, and finding effective ways to use agricultural freshwater resources has become a widely discussed subject. To investigate the most suitable crops and the efficient use of water resources in dry regions, we performed a comparison study of water consumption between two common crops, maize and sunflowers, in the irrigation area located on the south bank of the Yellow River in Northwest China. Both sunflowers and maize have diverse water sources at various reproductive phases. We discovered that sunflower predominantly consumes 0–50 cm soil water throughout the reproductive cycle, whereas maize mostly utilizes 0–50 cm soil water in the early reproductive phase and 50–90 cm soil water in the late reproductive period. The comparison of yield sustainability between sunflowers and maize demonstrated that sunflowers exhibited more resilience than maize when subjected to the same level of water decrease. Sunflowers’ yield sustainability score stayed consistently over 0.95, while maize had a lowest score of 0.84. We observed via correlation analysis that it was the fraction of subsurface water contribution and the water contribution of the 50~70 cm soil layer that impacted the yield of sunflowers and maize, with coefficients of 0.88 or higher. Ultimately, sunflowers exhibited a lower level of responsiveness to water scarcity compared to maize. Sunflowers have greater drought tolerance compared to maize since they rely less on soil layers replenished by a limited water supply. Based on our findings, sunflowers are well suited to arid conditions and limited spaces that do not have access to irrigation, while maize is better suited to well-watered conditions and expansive cultivation areas. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Research and Application of Water Saving-Related Irrigation Theory or Technology)

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15 pages, 6285 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Sprinkler Irrigation on Sloping Land: Distribution Characteristics of Droplet Impact Angle and Shear Stress

by Xin Hui, Yifei Chen, Muhammad Rizwan Shoukat, Huimin Yang and Yudong Zheng

Water 2024, 16(1), 60; https://doi.org/10.3390/w16010060 - 23 Dec 2023

Viewed by 761

Abstract

Droplet impact angle and shear stress are important indicators of surface runoff under sprinkler irrigation, and determining the distribution characteristics of these two indicators on sloping land is of great significance for preventing soil surface erosion. Therefore, three slopes (0, 10%, and 20%) and two directions (uphill and downhill) under a Rainbird LF1200 rotary sprinkler were considered in this study. The distribution of droplet impact angles and shear stresses along the radial direction were investigated under various working conditions. The correlations among the droplet impact angle, shear stress, and distance from the sprinkler were also analyzed. These results indicated that the closer to the sprinkler, the larger the droplet impact angle and the smaller the shear stress, and the two indicators gradually decreased and increased with the increase of distance from the sprinkler, respectively. Accordingly, there was a very high potential for soil surface runoff at the spray jet end. It was also observed that the uphill direction generally had a greater impact angle and less shear stress than flat land, while the downhill direction had exactly the opposite result. However, regardless of the direction, an increase in the slope could intensify its effect on the droplet shear stress and impact angle. Therefore, there is an urgent need to focus on the occurrence of surface runoff in soils with larger slopes. In addition, two radial droplet shear stress distribution models were developed, and it was verified that Model 2 had higher accuracy (MAE = 176.6 N m⁻², MBE = 32.8 N m⁻², and NRMSE = 14.4%) and could be used to predict the average droplet shear stresses at different slopes, directions, and distances from the sprinkler. This study contributes to the soil erosion prevention and the sprinkler irrigation system optimization on sloping land. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Research and Application of Water Saving-Related Irrigation Theory or Technology)

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21 pages, 9642 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Monitoring and Investigating the Change Patterns of Major Growth Parameters of Almond (Badam) Trees under Different Irrigation Conditions

by Huimin Yang, Yunlong San, Yifei Chen, Yan Ma, Xuenong Wang, Muhammad Rizwan Shoukat, Yudong Zheng and Xin Hui

Water 2023, 15(21), 3731; https://doi.org/10.3390/w15213731 - 26 Oct 2023

Viewed by 888

Abstract

Knowledge of the response of growth parameters of almond (Badam) trees to different water supply conditions is important for Badam production. To identify growth parameters that are sensitive to water deficit in almond trees, field experiments were conducted during a median water year to monitor the major growth characteristics of almond trees under different irrigation conditions in Shache County, Xinjiang, China. A field (in-situ) monitoring system was also constructed using various sensors for the continuous and non-destructive monitoring of the growth parameters, such as soil water in the root zone, canopy temperature depression, trunk diameter, and fruit diameter of almond trees. The results confirmed the reliability of the monitoring system. Both canopy temperature depression and the diameter shrinkage of the trunk and fruit were significantly negatively correlated (r values ranging from −0.996 to −0.823) with the irrigation water quantity. This correlation was observed from the young fruit stage to the maturation stage of almond trees, under irrigation conditions representing 50–100% of crop evapotranspiration (ETc). These parameters were sensitive (|r| ≥ 0.778) to the water deficit status of almond trees from 14:00 to 18:00 in sunny weather. These results can provide both technical and theoretical support for real-time non-destructive assessment of the water deficit status of almond trees. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Research and Application of Water Saving-Related Irrigation Theory or Technology)

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