Simulation of Irrigation Demand and Control in Catchments – A Review of Methods and Case Studies

The world's water resources are continuously facing challenges in fulfilling the needs of increasing agricultural water demand with finite or diminishing resources. Therefore, it is important to quantify the amount of irrigation water required to attain sustainable yield at a local, regional, and global level, especially in arid and semi‐arid regions. This is mostly quantified by using agro‐hydrological or agricultural models. The advances in simulation models and several options incorporated in them allow catchment/site‐specific application of irrigation water to depict the field management practices undertaken by farmers. The objective of the present study is to provide a review of the simulation of irrigation water demand at catchment scale by agro‐hydrological and agricultural models. This study discusses the different types of models, their dimensions, and the hydrological and agricultural process models incorporated into them. Additionally, this review provides an overview of how irrigation can be scheduled, how water is applied, and from which sources irrigation water can be extracted by the considered models, taking horizontal hydrological connectivity into consideration. Adding to the model review, seven different fields of innovative case studies are covered. Many agricultural models have been applied in a regional context without simulating horizontal hydrological fluxes, but only a few hydrological catchment models provide full support of both irrigation and plant growth simulation, which are important for the simulation of future crop yield under different climatic and agricultural management scenarios. Key Points The catchment scale is of high relevance for simulating irrigation in the context of water resources planning and management Only few catchment models provide a full integration of hydrology and plant growth There is a growing number of catchment scale irrigation studies, many of which are related to climate change impact and adaptation