Predicting soil and plant water status dynamic in olive orchards under different irrigation systems with Hydrus-2D: Model performance and scenario analysis

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

“…The ranking index (RI) equal to 4.45 indicated C5 as the approach that best described the SWC dynamic, followed by C1 and C3 (RI greater than 3), C2 (greater than 2) and finally C4, which had the worst performance (RI = 1). rRMSE, ME, and AE are aligned with the values obtained by Autovino et al (2018) under olive cultivation simulated with two dimensional Hydrus-2D (in average for two years: 0.06, 0.4, and 0.02). Figure 7 shows the time evolution of SWC as measured through TDR and simulated with the five parameter sets, at the four soil depths.…”

“…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.…”

“…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]. Recently, the dynamics of soil water contents and water fluxes in an olive orchard, submitted to two irrigation systems, were assessed by Autovino et al [2]. The abovementioned studies were based on Hydrus-2D, which simulates two-dimensional water movements, with the assumption of the absence of water pressure head gradient along the plant rows.…”

“…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 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]. Recently, the dynamics of soil water contents and water fluxes in an olive orchard, submitted to two irrigation systems, were assessed by Autovino et al [2]. The abovementioned studies were based on Hydrus-2D, which simulates two-dimensional water movements, with the assumption of the absence of water pressure head gradient along the plant rows.…”