Irrigation erosion

Bjorneberg, D.L. and Sojka, R.E. (2002) Irrigation erosion. In: Lal, R., (ed.) Encyclopedia of Soil Science (1st Edition). pp. 742-744. Marcel Dekker, Inc., New York.

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Abstract

Irrigation is important to global food production. About
15% of cropland (1) and 5% of food production land, [Fl]
which includes rangeland and permanent cropland (2), are [F2]
irrigated. However, irrigated land produces more than 30%
of the world's food (3), which is 2.5 times as much per unit
area compared with nonirrigated production (1). In the
U.S., approximately 15% of the harvested cropland is
irrigated; however, almost 40% of the total crop value is
produced on irrigated land (4).
Although sprinkler- and drip-irrigated areas are
increasing, most of the world's irrigated land uses surface
or flood irrigation. The countries with the large irrigated
areas are India (59,000,000 ha), China (52,580,000 ha),
U.S. (21,400,000 ha), and Pakistan (18,000,000 ha) (2).
These countries account for 55% of the world's irrigated
land; all other countries have less than 10 million ha each
of irrigated land (2). About 50% of the irrigated land in the
U.S. is surface irrigated (5), although 95-99% of the
irrigated land in India, China, and Pakistan is surface
irrigated (6).
Soil erosion from irrigated fields has been discussed
previously (7, 8); this article focuses on unique aspects
of irrigation-induced soil erosion that are important
when managing and simulating soil erosion on irrigated
lands.
Soil erosion mechanics can be divided into three
components: detachment, transport, and deposition. Water
droplets and flowing water detach soil particles; flowing
water then transports these detached particles downstream;
deposition occurs when flowing water can no
longer transport the soil particles because flow rate
decreases as water infiltrates or as rill slope or roughness
changes. Some particles are deposited within a few meters
although others are transported off the field with runoff
water. These mechanisms are the same for surface
irrigation, sprinkler irrigation and rainfall; however, there
are some systematic differences between irrigation and
rainfall erosion and especially between surface irrigation
and rainfall.

Item Type:	Book Section
NWISRL Publication Number:	1069
Subjects:	Irrigation > Furrow irrigation > Erosion Soil > Erosion Mass Import - autoclassified (may be erroneous)
Depositing User:	Users 6 not found.
Date Deposited:	20 Nov 2010 21:55
Last Modified:	10 Nov 2016 16:24
Item ID:	814
URI:	https://eprints.nwisrl.ars.usda.gov/id/eprint/814