Estimating Evapotranspiration of Processing Tomato under Plastic Mulch Using the SIMDualKc Model

The main challenge faced by agriculture is to produce enough food for a continued increase in population, however in the context of ever-growing competition for water and land, climate change, droughts and anthropic water scarcity, and less-participatory water governance. Such a context implies innovative issues in agricultural water management and practices, at both the field and the system or the basin scales, mainly in irrigation to cope with water scarcity, environmental friendliness, and rural society welfare. Therefore, this special issue was set to present and discuss recent achievements in water, agriculture, and food nexus at different scales, thus to promote sustainable development of irrigated agriculture and to develop integrated approaches to water and food. Papers cover various domains including: (a) evapotranspiration and crop water use; (b) improving water management in irrigated agriculture, particularly irrigation scheduling; (c) adaptation of agricultural systems to enhance water use and water productivity to face water scarcity and climate change; (d) improving irrigation systems design and management adopting multi-criteria and risk approaches; (e) ensuring sustainable management for anthropic ecosystems favoring safe and high-quality food production, as well as the conservation of natural ecosystems; (f) assessing the impact of water scarcity and, mainly, droughts; (g) conservation of water quality resources, namely by preventing contamination with nitrates; (h) use of modern mapping technologies and remote sensing information; and (i) fostering a participative and inclusive governance of water for food security and population welfare.

Section: Innovation Issues At Local Scalesupporting

confidence: 63%

“…They recommended the use of the SIMDualKc or a similar model to properly schedule irrigation. The papers referred above [5][6][7] relative to a grass crop, a horticultural crop, and a tree crop all proved the appropriateness of simply computing K cb from the fraction of ground cover and height.…”

Section: Innovation Issues At Local Scalementioning

confidence: 99%

Innovation Issues in Water, Agriculture and Food

Cameira

Pereira

2019

“…Irrigation scheduling requires a more scientific basis, including the knowledge of the plant response to water stress, in order to determine the timing of irrigation and the applied water amount [7,8]. Under drought, plants reduce water loss by stomatal closure which results not only in a reduction of transpiration but the inhibition of photosynthesis coupled with reducing CO 2 uptake [9].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Physiological Factors and their Relationship with the Productivity of Processing Tomato under Different Water Supplies

Nemeskéri

Neményi

Bőcs

et al. 2019

Measurement of physiological traits can be used to monitor plant water status, for irrigation scheduling or to predict the expected yield in open-field production of vegetables. This study evaluates the changes in stomatal conductance, chlorophyll fluorescence (Fv/Fm), relative chlorophyll content (SPAD), and canopy temperature at different stages of development of processing tomato to show their relationships with the yield and quality under well-irrigated, deficit irrigated, and non-irrigated conditions. Under non-irrigated conditions, during flowering with fruit setting and early fruit development the highest canopy temperature, lowest stomatal conductance, and Fv/Fm were measured, while the SPAD value was the highest. Under this condition, the correlation between the SPAD value, fruit weight, and marketing yield was positive, but it was negative with the total soluble solid (°Brix). During flowering with fruit setting, under deficit irrigation conditions a close significant positive correlation was found between the SPAD value and the fruit weight, marketing yield, and vitamin C content of fruits. During this period, under regularly irrigated conditions, the SPAD, Fv/Fm, and canopy temperature related to stomatal conductance. Stomatal conductance had significant influence on yield and quality under non-irrigated and well-irrigated conditions while the SPAD value and canopy temperature had significant influence on under deficit irrigated conditions.

“…Hydrus-1D, with related manuals and case studies as examples, can be freely downloaded from the Hydrus website (https://www.pc-progress.com/en/Default.aspx?hydrus-1d) [7].In the Mediterranean environment of Southern Italy, one of the first applications of Hydrus-1D concerned the simulation of water movement and solute transport in a variably saturated water flow of fine-textured soil subjected to a fluctuating saline groundwater table [8]. Since then, the use of Hydrus has involved the estimation of the water fluxes under several cropping systems differentiated from a spatial and agronomical point of view.Plastic mulch is an agronomic technology widespread in the world because it allows farmers and engineers: (1) to increase soil temperature, (2) to reduce weed pressure and certain insect pests, (3) to increase the soil moisture, and (4) to improve nutrient use efficiency [9][10][11]. Under cotton cultivation, for example, the effect of plastic mulch on soil water balance under drip irrigation has been examined by Han et al [9], who revealed a minimal effect on soil water distribution but a real effectiveness on soil water conservation due to a great reduction of soil evaporation.Hydrus was used also to check out the optimal drip lateral depth under a cropping system of eggplant characterized by large inter-row distance and localized irrigation [12].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Plastic mulch is an agronomic technology widespread in the world because it allows farmers and engineers: (1) to increase soil temperature, (2) to reduce weed pressure and certain insect pests, (3) to increase the soil moisture, and (4) to improve nutrient use efficiency [9][10][11]. Under cotton cultivation, for example, the effect of plastic mulch on soil water balance under drip irrigation has been examined by Han et al [9], who revealed a minimal effect on soil water distribution but a real effectiveness on soil water conservation due to a great reduction of soil evaporation.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment of the Physically-Based Hydrus-1D Model for Simulating the Water Fluxes of a Mediterranean Cropping System

Ventrella

Castellini

Prima

et al. 2019

In a context characterized by a scarcity of water resources and a need for agriculture to cope the increase of food demand, it is of fundamental importance to increase the water use efficiency of cropping systems. This objective can be meet using several currently available software packages simulating water movements in the "soil-plant-atmosphere" continuum (SPAC). The goal of the paper is to discuss and optimize the strategy for implementing an effective simulation framework in order to describe the main soil water fluxes of a typical horticultural cropping system in Southern Italy based on drip-irrigated watermelon cultivation. The Hydrus-1D model was calibrated by optimizing the hydraulic parameters based on the comparison between simulated and measured soil water content values. Next, a sensitivity analysis of the hydraulic parameters of the Mualem-van Genuchten model was carried out. Hydryus-1D determined simulated soil water contents fairly well, with an average root mean square error below 9%. The main fluxes of the SPAC were confined in a restricted soil volume and were therefore well described by the one-dimensional model Hydrus-1D. Water content at saturation and the fitting parameters α and n were the parameters with the highest impact for describing the soil/plant water balance. vadose zone for a variety of common applications in research and soil/water management (see for example [2][3][4][5][6]).Hydrus software packages are finite element models for simulating the one-and two-or three-dimensional movement of water, heat, and multiple solutes in variably saturated media, and since their implementation they have been extensively applied in various applications. Hydrus-1D, with related manuals and case studies as examples, can be freely downloaded from the Hydrus website (https://www.pc-progress.com/en/Default.aspx?hydrus-1d) [7].In the Mediterranean environment of Southern Italy, one of the first applications of Hydrus-1D concerned the simulation of water movement and solute transport in a variably saturated water flow of fine-textured soil subjected to a fluctuating saline groundwater table [8]. Since then, the use of Hydrus has involved the estimation of the water fluxes under several cropping systems differentiated from a spatial and agronomical point of view.Plastic mulch is an agronomic technology widespread in the world because it allows farmers and engineers: (1) to increase soil temperature, (2) to reduce weed pressure and certain insect pests, (3) to increase the soil moisture, and (4) to improve nutrient use efficiency [9][10][11]. Under cotton cultivation, for example, the effect of plastic mulch on soil water balance under drip irrigation has been examined by Han et al. [9], who revealed a minimal effect on soil water distribution but a real effectiveness on soil water conservation due to a great reduction of soil evaporation.Hydrus was used also to check out the optimal drip lateral depth under a cropping system of eggplant characterized by large inter-row distance and localized irrigati...