path analysis of cumulative infiltration in furrows

soil infiltration characteristics affect the design, evaluation and management of furrow irrigation over afield. on the other hand, different variables influence furrow infiltration, making infiltration modeling for afield a complex process. this study was conducted to investigate the direct and indirect effects of allvariables affecting furrow infiltration. the blocked furrow method was used to measure furrow infiltrationfor a field with soil of sandy loam. results showed that infiltration time was the most effective variableaffecting cumulative infiltration by directly and significantly affecting furrow infiltration. the relativecontribution of the filtration time to the furrow infiltration was seven times more than the contribution ofthe wetted perimeter and 2.5 times that of the flow section area. an additive and nonlinear model wasproposed to describe field-wide cumulative infiltration using the observed data. the proposed modeldescribed approximately 89% of the variation in field-wide cumulative infiltration.