Water management and utilization is an ongoing problem in developing countries with semi-arid to arid climates such as Afghanistan. The lack of effective irrigation systems are oftentimes the most limiting factor for maximizing agricultural productivity in these countries. In Afghanistan, the most widely used irrigation methods are basin/border for cereal crops and furrow for vegetables and gra...

The sustainability of the Hetao Irrigation System, located in the water scarce upper Yellow River basin, is a priority considering the need for water saving, increased water productivity, and higher farmers’ incomes. The upgrading of basin irrigation, the main irrigation method, is essential and includes the adoption of precise land levelling, cut-off management, improved water distribution uni...

Farmers in the Indus Basin, Pakistan have generally switched to groundwater for additional water supplies due to the irregular supply of irrigation water; currently over 50% of the agricultural land in the basin is at least partially irrigated by tubewells. These wells pump fresh groundwater, which essentially is the result of massive leakage from irrigation canals into the originally saltwater...

The introduction of irrigation to agrarian areas involves several environmental changes that can be aggravated by physical and agronomic factors. The aim of this study is to analyze the spatiotemporal dynamics of the environmental impact on water resources that result from the transition of an agrarian basin into an irrigated area. During five hydrological years, a spatiotemporal comparison was...

The primary source of plant parasitic nematodes in irrigation waterways in the Columbia Basin Project of eastern Washington is irrigation runoff returned into the irrigation system. This has contributed to the rapid spread of plant parasitic nematodes observed during eight years of study.

Microtopography has long been regarded as a key variable affecting basin irrigation performance. This paper reports on the extension of a flat bed two-dimensional basin irrigation model to the simulation of irrigation events in basins with microtopography. The model incorporates the local surface slopes in the x and y directions to the governing set of partial differential equations. Three fiel...

The Murray–Darling Basin comprises over 1 million square kilometres; it lies within four states and one territory; and over 12,800 gigalitres of irrigation water is used to produce over 40 per cent of the nation's gross value of agricultural production. The supply of water for irrigation is subject to climatic and policy uncertainty. The object of the present paper is to show how the linear and...

In recent decades, China has been experiencing rapid economic development, population growth and urbanization. These processes have stressed the shortages of water resources in China, especially in the arid regions of northwestern China. In order to sustain the expanding cropland, people increased groundwater exploitation in these regions. The purpose of this study was to quantitatively analyze...