Operative irrigation modelling for real-time applications on closed-end furrows

The complexity of physical phenomena in furrow irrigation,where numerous parameters vary with time and space, makeempirical models more operative than mechanistic models forimproving irrigation efficiency. In addition, when theseempirical models are well adapted for real-time calibration onadvance trajectory, they can be considered an efficient toolto predict irrigation performance.In the first section of this paper, the selection of operativefurrow irrigation modelling for real-time applications isdiscussed. Models derived from Horton and linear infiltrationequations through the water balance equation (WBE) arepreferred to those derived from the 2-term Philip‘s equationand to the solution of WBE involving both the power advancefunction and Kostiakov‘s extended equation.The second section shows that simplified analytical modellingoptions can be added to the basic advance-infiltration modelfor improving irrigation efficiency. The modelling optiondeveloped in this paper concerns the prediction of cutoff timeand irrigation performance for closed-end furrows (CEF).The simplified analytical model for CEF based on the massconservation principle is successfully compared to field testsand numerical simulations.