TY - JOUR
AU1 - Massey, Joseph H.
AU2 - Smith, M. Cade
AU3 - Jardim, Thais M.
AU4 - Avila, Luis A.
AU5 - Hashem, Ahmed A.
AU6 - Reba, Michele L.
AB - Cascade rice flood distribution (CASC), the predominate method used for rice irrigation in the lower Mississippi River basin (LMRB), is inherently water intensive owing to the need to overfill rice paddies to move irrigation water from one paddy to the next. The objectives of this research were to devise practices that make CASC more water efficient, assessing how early cascade rice irrigation shutoff (ECIS) impacts applied irrigation, run-off, and flood depth under LMRB rainfall conditions. This research used a conservation-of-mass model to show that using flood depth in the penultimate rice paddy to trigger irrigation shutoff in a 16-ha simulated rice field results in nominal irrigation water savings of 23% relative to CASC. This savings was reduced to 15% when supplemental irrigation was added to the last paddy at two critical stages of rice production. Field run-off estimates for ECIS were reduced by up to 78% relative to a CASC for both clay and silt loam soils, demonstrating how with ECIS the last paddy of a rice field acts as a ‘catch basin’ for excess up-field irrigation and uncaptured rainfall. Flood depth estimates for the last paddy resulting from ECIS resembled those of alternate wetting and drying flood management (AWD), suggesting that the agronomics developed for AWD could be used to help address production issues arising in the catch basin from ECIS. Success in coupling ECIS with irrigation automation technologies could reduce aquifer withdrawals across the rice producing areas of the LMRB.
TI - Early cascade rice irrigation shutoff (ECIS) conserves water: implications for cascade flood automation
JF - Irrigation Science
DO - 10.1007/s00271-022-00821-y
DA - 2023-05-01
UR - https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/springer-journals/early-cascade-rice-irrigation-shutoff-ecis-conserves-water-rEO48wA8rI
SP - 355
EP - 364
VL - 41
IS - 3
DP - DeepDyve
ER -