A holistic generic integrated approach for irrigation, crop and field management: the SALTMED model

A successful water management scheme for irrigated crops requires an integrated approach that accounts for water, crop, soil and field management. Most existing models are designed for a specific irrigation system, specific process such as water and solute movement, infiltration, leaching or water uptake by plant roots or a combination of them. There is a shortage in models of a generic nature, models that can be used for a variety of irrigation systems, soil types, soil stratifications, crops and trees, water management strategies (blending or cyclic), leaching requirements and water quality. SALTMED model has been developed for such generic applications. The model employs established water and solute transport, evapotranspiration and crop water uptake equations. In this paper, the model has been run with five examples of applications for one growing season using data from the literature. The model successfully illustrated the effect of the irrigation system, the soil type, the salinity level of irrigation water on soil moisture and salinity distribution, leaching requirements, and crop yield in all cases. Due to the scarcity of data sets that are suitable for model testing over the complete growing season, where different processes are acting simultaneously, a follow up paper will show the results of the model tests using data being collected from two sites in Egypt and in Syria as a part of ongoing SALTMED project.