Influence of surface irrigation technical parameter on nitrogen transport and distribution: A review

Surface irrigation regime is the most widespread irrigation regime. At present, the emerging interest in surface irrigation study is focused on reducing leaching of water and nitrogen by optimizing the design and management of surface irrigation. A literature review was conducted on the transport and distribution of solute under surface fertigation in this article. The number of field scale solute transport studies is limited due to the time and resources required, and the difficulty in isolating sources of variability in soil hydraulic and transport properties. A few of field experiments on the transport of solutes with border, furrow, and level basin irrigations showed that the solute mass demonstrated a greater nonuniformity than infiltrated water. The degree of nonuniformity for solute is affected by such factors as the initial water contents, soil surface conditions, the fertilizer application regime, and flow properties (e.g., inflow rate, infiltration characteristics, and soil hydraulic properties). Several models, including the pure advection model, the advection-diffusion model, the piston model, and the transfer function model have been reported with different complexities in the literature to simulate solute transport under surface fertigation. As surface fertigation is a complicated process, more researches on the solute transport modeling, the effects of irrigation variables and fertigation regime on leaching of fertilizers, and performance indices for surface fertigation were recommended.