Simulating potential weekly stream and pond water available for irrigation in the Big Sunflower River Watershed of Mississippi Delta

Fei Gao; Gary Feng; Ying Ouyang; Johnie Jenkins; Changming Liu

doi:10.3390/w11061271

Treesearch

Simulating potential weekly stream and pond water available for irrigation in the Big Sunflower River Watershed of Mississippi Delta

Formally Refereed

Authors:

Fei Gao, Gary Feng, Ying Ouyang, Johnie Jenkins, Changming Liu

Year:

2019

Type:

Scientific Journal

Station:

Southern Research Station

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3390/w11061271

Source:

Water

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Abstract

Groundwater storage and level have declined rapidly in the Big Sunflower River Watershed(BSRW) of Mississippi Delta in recent years. Farmers in this region are beginning to save groundwaterresources by increasing surface water usage for agricultural irrigation. In this study, we estimated theweekly amount of surface water available in ponds and streams, determined if the weekly surfacewater resources are sufficient for major crop irrigation demand, and assessed how much surface watercan replace groundwater for agriculture irrigation in the BSRW. The SWAT (Soil and Water AssessmentTool) model was employed to simulate the weekly water resources for 23 sub-basins from the BSRW.Results showed that weekly stream water resources (SWR), stream evaporation (SE) and water lossfrom the channel via transmission through the side and bottom of the channel (stream transmission,referred as ST) for BSRW during the growing seasons ranged from 20.4 to 29.4 mm, 7.4 to 14.4 mm,1.6 to 4.5 mm and 1.1 to 1.6 mm, while pond water resources (PWR) and pond evaporation (PE)ranged from 1.9 to 2.1 mm and 0.3 to 0.5 mm. The value of SWR - (ST + SE) and PWR - PE werepositive in all sub-basins, indicating that there are net surface water resources available in this region.The percentages of total groundwater usage for irrigation that could be replaced by surface water ineach sub-basin every week of each month from May to September ranged from 10% to 87%. Ourstudies suggested that the conjunctive use of surface and groundwater for agriculture irrigation is afeasible method for groundwater sustainable management in the Mississippi Delta.

Keywords

Surface water resources, irrigation, stream, pond, SWAT model

Citation

Gao, Fei; Feng, Gary; Ouyang, Ying; Jenkins, Johnie; Liu, Changming. 2019. Simulating potential weekly stream and pond water available for irrigation in the Big Sunflower River Watershed of Mississippi Delta. Water. 11(6): 1271-. https://doi.org/10.3390/w11061271.