JWSS - Journal of Water and Soil Science

In this study, five infiltration models including Kostiakov, Kostiakov-Lewis, Philip, Soil Conservation Service (SCS) and Horton were fitted to the experimental data using the double rings, and the empirical coefficients of these models were determined. Infiltration experiments were conducted in the gravelly sandy loam soil under and between the olive and orange trees in Fasa city, Fars Province, Iran. The results showed that all five models were fitted accurately to the measured data. The accumulated infiltration under the trees was higher than those measured between two trees. Higher infiltration under the tree canopies was probably due to the higher soil organic matter, the lower soil bulk density, and the tree root channeling, which were more pronounced when compared to the small pores in these soils. Despite the positive effect of sand particles on soil infiltration, the big gravel occurrence in soil would decrease the cross section area of water flow path, thereby reducing the infiltration. Therefore, changing the land use and planting olive and orange trees in the gravel soils would increase the infiltration rate and consequently, decrease runoff and erosion rates in such soils.

Soil water retention curve (SWRC) reflects different states of soil moisture and describes quantitative characteristics of the unsaturated parts of the soil. Direct measurement of SWRC is time-consuming, difficult and costly. Therefore, many indirect attempts have been made to estimate SWRC from other soil properties. Using pedotransfer functions is one of the indirect methods for estimating SWRC. The aim of this research was to assess the effect of using soil particles percentage in comparison with the geometric characteristics of soil particles on the accuracy of the pedotransfer equations of SWRC and the critical point of it. Accordingly, 54 soil samples of Isfahan province from seven texture classes were used. The most suitable functions for estimating SWRC, parameters of van Genuchten and Brooks-Corey equations, and the critical point of SWRC were selected based on statistical indices. The results indicated that the pedotransfer equations fitted the SWRC data well and the outputs from them were in a good agreement with the independent (validation) SWRC data. The results revealed that using soil particles percentage (sand and clay), bulk density and organic matter content in the point estimation of SWRC was better than applying geometric properties of the soil particle diameter. On the other hand, in the estimation of parametric and critical point of SWRC, using the geometric properties of soil particle diameters resulted in more satisfactory results, as compared with using the soil particles percentage. The NRMSE values indicated that the accuracy of the pedotransfer equations in the lower matric head was greater than that of the higher matric head.

Shortage of irrigation water is a major problem constraining in agricultural production in arid and semi-arid regions. Deficit irrigation is one way to cope with water scarcity and increase water use efficiency. Determining the optimum applied water based on economic analysis is a major key to the deficit irrigation strategy. In this study, the required equations were derived to determine the optimum applied water for sugar beet when crop price is a function of the applied water. The results showed that the optimum applied water under land limiting conditions (144.98 cm) resulted in the maximum net benefit per unit area (2089741 Rials ha^-1). Applying the optimum water depth under land limiting resulted in 17.48% decrease in the applied water and 15.05% increase in the total net benefit, in comparison with the maximum yield condition. In water limiting conditions (land is not limiting), the total net benefit was maximized by applying the saved water to put larger areas of land under irrigation. Applying the optimum water depth under water limit condition resulted in 31.2% decrease in applied water and 45 and 52.36% increase in the planting area and the total net benefit, in comparison with the maximum yield condition, respectively. Sugar beet planting can be, therefore, profitable if the applied water depth is greater than 67.53 cm in this study area.

Creating a mulch layer on the sand dunes surface has long been applied to reduce their mobility. However, application of oil mulch in some countries, in addition to high costs, has many environmental problems. In this research, the hydrated lime slurry was used as a protective cover on the sand dunes. The slurry was prepared in three treatments with 3, 5 and 7% lime and sprayed uniformly on 2×5 m plots on the sand dunes surface. The average thickness of different types of mulch was measured by a caliper and then their abrasions were calculated in two-month intervals for three calcareous and controlling treatments at three locations. Statistical analysis was performed by using SPSS and the Excel software. The results showed that the 3% lime slurry layer had no resistance to wind abrasion and was comparable to the controlling sites. The results obtained for the 5 and 7% lime slurry mulch layers indicated that the increase in lime percentage raised the mulch resistance against the wind abrasion. The 7% lime slurry layer with a 6.3 mm thickness showed the highest abrasion resistance in the natural conditions.

Today, to reduce the risks of contaminants, new remediation techniques have been focused on low-cost and environmentally friendly manners. Given the frequency of access, inexpensiveness and good physical and chemical properties, biochar has a high potential for the remediation of water pollutants. In this paper, the efficiency of chitosan engineered biochar (Bc-Ch) and pristine biochar (Bg-Bc) prepared from sugarcane bagasse biomass (Bg) in the Cd²⁺ removal in aqueous solution was investigated. To this aim, the effects of contact time, adsorbent dosage and solution pH on cadmium removal were evaluated by adsorption isotherms and Kinetic models. The results indicated that the Langmuir isotherm and the pseudo-second-order kinetic model could be well fitted with the process of cadmium biosorption. The maximum adsorption capacities of Bc-Ch, Bg-Bc and Bg ,according to Langmuir model, were found to be 32/78 mg/g, 11/57 mg/g and 2/23 mg/g, respectively. For these absorbents, the pseudo-second-order kinetic model showed the best fit to the experimental adsorption data. This study, therefore, indicated that the chitosan engineered biochar could be used as an effective, low-cost, and environmentally-friendly sorbent to remediate heavy metals contamination in the environment.

Class A pan evaporation method as one of the most common methods for reference evapotranspiration (ET₀) estimation has been widely used in the world due to its simplicity, relatively low cost, and ability to estimate daily ET. In this study, the performance of 8 empirical methods consisting of Allen and Pruitt (1991), Cuenca (1989), Snyder (1992), modified Snyder, Pereira, et al. (1995), Orang (1998), Raghuwanshi and Wallender (1998), and FAO/56 were analyzed to estimate class A pan coefficient and ET₀ at Fasa synoptic station located in Fars province. The calculated pan evaporation coefficients from the above equations were compared with measured pan evaporation coefficients which were obtained from the ratio of evapotranspiration calculated by the FAO-Penman-Monteith method to the rate of evaporation from the pan. The results showed that all empirical methods did not predict pan coefficient values well (R² < 0.3 and NRMSE > 0.25). The comparison results between ET₀ from empirical methods and ET₀ obtained from FAO-Penman–Monteith indicated that the FAO/56 method had the best performance (R² = 0.72 and NRMSE = 0.3). To increase the accuracy of empirical pan coefficient equations, these equations were modified with eight years (2007-2015) of meteorological data from the Fasa synoptic station and validated using two years of independent data (2015-2017). The results showed that the accuracy of all empirical models was improved and the Cuenca equation with NRMSE = 0.16 and R²= 0.63 was selected as the best equation for pan coefficient estimation and ET₀ (R² =0.85; NRMSE =0.18) in Fasa region. The sensitivity analysis revealed that the estimated pan coefficient is more sensitive to wind speed, followed by relative humidity, fetch distance, the slope of the saturation vapor pressure curve, sunshine hours, and air pressure. According to statistical results and sensitivity analysis, an equation was expanded for the Fasa region and other areas with the same climate.

Due to the climatic conditions of Iran, increasing water scarcity, and the effect of drought stress on the efficiency of irrigation water consumption and chemical fertilizers application, an experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of irrigation intervals (6, 9, and 12-day intervals), different levels of nitrogen fertilizer (200, 300, and 400 kg urea per hectare) and cultivation methods (on-ridge or heeling up and in-furrow) on yield and productivity of sugarcane as a factorial design based on randomized complete block design in 3 replications at Hakim Farabi Agro-Industry Company in Khuzestan province. The results showed that the maximum (106.73 tons/ha) and minimum (59.10 tons/ha) sugarcane yields were observed in 9-day and 12-day irrigation intervals, respectively. Also, the highest sugarcane yield (99.89 tons per hectare) was obtained in the treatment of 400 kg urea per hectare and the in-furrow planting method resulted in a higher yield compared to the on-ridge planting method. The highest water productivity in sugarcane stem yield and sugar production with 3.55 and 0.34 kg per cubic meter of applied water, respectively, was obtained in a 9-day irrigation interval. A significant increase in water use efficiency in sugarcane stem yield was observed in 400 kg urea/ha compared to the other two fertilizer levels. However, there was no significant difference in water productivity of sugar yield between different fertilizer treatments. The results showed that 6 and 9-day irrigation intervals in most of the studied traits were not significantly different. Therefore, using a 9-day irrigation interval is suggested in the studied area when the sugarcane cultivation area is high and the amount of available water is limited. In-furrow planting method can also be effective in reducing water consumption. Therefore, deficit irrigation and proper nitrogen fertilizer consumption can be very effective in sugarcane cultivation.