Spatial and Temporal Variation of Manning’s Roughness Coefficient in Furrow Irrigation

Manning’s roughness coefficient is one of the input parameters in many surface irrigation simulation models. It affects the velocity of flow and thereby its variation with time and distance along the field length influence water application. In this study, variation of Manning’s roughness coefficient was studied for a furrow plot consisting of three 40 m long free drained furrows of parabolic shape and having a top width of 0.30 m, a depth of 0.15 m and a slope of 0.5%. The irrigation experiments were carried out with the inflow rates of 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, and 0.5 L s1 ; and 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, and 0.7 L s−1 under bare; and cropped field conditions, respectively. Furrow cross-section data were collected before each irrigation event at 0.5, 13, 26 and 39.5 m from the head end along the center furrow using a profilometer. During the irrigation event, water depth and velocity of flow were measured at these locations at an interval of 15 min using point gauge and color dye, respectively. The furrow cross-section data were fitted into a second-degree polynomial equation to determine the furrow shape parameters that were used along with the flow depth data for determining the wetted area and wetted perimeter. The wetted area, wetted perimeter, and the velocity data were used to estimate Manning’s roughness coefficient spatially and temporally. It is found that for both bare and cropped field conditions, Manning’s roughness coefficient was more at second and last quarter of the furrow due to soil erosion at these locations. Manning’s roughness coefficient at these locations varied from 0.019 to 0.022 and 0.015 to 0.018 for bare field whereas from 0.02 to 0.024, and 0.019 to 0.022 for cropped field, respectively. The temporal variation of Manning’s roughness coefficient for both bare and cropped furrow conditions decreased with the elapsed time. However, these decreasing trends were observed more for lower inflow rates. Further, the average Manning’s roughness coefficient for the subsequent irrigations was varied from 0.018 to 0.02 and from 0.019 to 0.0245 for bare and cropped conditions, respectively. Thus, the values of Manning’s roughness coefficients were more for cropped furrow conditions than for bare furrow.