Evaluation of Soil Water Movement and Consumption at a Welsh Onion Field with Changing Ridge Shape

Abstract

The aim of this study is to evaluate the soil water movement in a crop field where ridge shape was changed and suggest optimal methods for soil water measurement and analysis to quantify the water consumption. Field measurement was performed and a numerical model was developed using HYDRUS 2D/3D to evaluate the soil water movement at a welsh onion field with ridging cultivation. The computing domain was changed in four stages with ridging. Simulated result using inverse solution for soil hydraulic properties had good agreement with measurement and indicated that the soil moisture content at the soil layer which was generated by ridging was relatively low after precipitation. There was little different between soil moisture contents simulated under ridging and non-ridging scenarios. The water consumption estimated using the results from ridging and non-ridging scenarios had good agreement with measurement.