Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:
1. measure soil moisture and infiltration and to estimate irrigation parameters
2. estimate crop water requirements and irrigation water requirements
3. design irrigation scheduling
Course Content (Syllabus)
Soil and soil moisture. Methods and sensors for measurement of soil moisture. Hydraulic properties of soil. Soil water movement. Infiltration and water uptaking from plants. Crop evapotranspiration: Concepts and factors which affect evapotranspiration (plant, climate, enviornment etc.). Energy balance, analysis and estimation of meteorological parameters. Reference crop evapotranspiration. Direct methods for esrtimating crop evapotranspiration (lysimeters, soil water balance etc.). Crop coefficients. Effective precipitation, irrigation efficiency, leaching requirements. Net and total irrigation water requirements. Yield response to water.Crop evapotranspiration under standard and soil water stress conditions. Deficit irrigation and crop planning. Irrigation scheduling. Mathematical models to simulate soil - water -plant - atmosphere relationships and crop yield.
soil moisture, evapotranspiration, irrigation water requirements, irrigation parameters, crop yield
Additional bibliography for study
Παπαμιχαήλ, Δ.Μ. και Γεωργίου, Π.Ε., 2005. Ασκήσεις για το μάθημα «Βασικές Αρχές και Πρακτική των Αρδεύσεων», ως Διδακτικές Σημειώσεις, Θεσσαλονίκη, σελ. 52.
Allen R.G., Pereira L.S., Raes D. and Smith M., 1998. Crop evapotranspiration: Guidelines for Computing Crop Water Requirements. FAO Irrigation and Drainage Paper No.56, 300 pp.
Allen R.G., Wright J.L., Pruitt W.O., Pereira L.S. and Jensen M.E., 2007. Water requirements in “Design and operation of farm irrigation systems” (ed: Hoffman G.J., Evans R.G., Jensen M.E., Martin D.L. and Elliott R.L.) American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers..