G Model

AGWAT-4398; No. of Pages 13 ARTICLE IN PRESS

Agricultural Water Management xxx (2016) xxxxxx

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Agricultural Water Management

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/agwat

Predicting soil moisture distribution, dry matter, water productivity

and potato yield under a modied gated pipe irrigation system:
SALTMED model application using eld experimental data
A.F. El-Shae a, , M.A. Osama b , M.M. Hussein a , A.M. El-Gindy b , R. Ragab c
a
Water Relations and Field Irrigation Department, National Research Centre, Egypt
b
Agricultural Engineering Department, Faculty of Agricultural, Ain-Shams University, Egypt
c
Center for Ecology and Hydrology, Wallingford, United Kingdom

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The use of gated pipes in surface irrigation helps to reduce water losses commonly associated with the
Received 6 September 2015 use of the traditional furrows. This study focused on predicting soil moisture content , total dry matter,
Received in revised form 29 January 2016 crop yield and water productivity of potato crop using traditional and modied, self-compensating gate
Accepted 1 February 2016
outlet (SCGO) gated pipe using the SALTMED model to explore the model suitability to identify the opti-
Available online xxx
mum and economic gate spacings. The traditional gated pipes are known to exhibit a range of pressure
head variations along the pipeline causing a non-uniform discharge from orices while the modied
Keywords:
gate pipe system, known as compensating gated pipes (SCGO) stabilizes the pressure heads and produce
Gated pipe
Self-compensating
more uniform water discharge along the pipe line. The effect of three gate spacings (0.7, 1.0 and 1.5 m)
Potato was studied in a eld experiment that has been conducted for two successive seasons, 20112012 and
Soil moisture 20122013. The SALTMED model has been applied and showed excellent agreement between the sim-
SALTMED model ulated and observed soil moisture, dry matter, yield and water productivity. Similar to the eld results,
the simulated values indicated that the modied (SCGO), with the 1.5 m gate spacing, gave the highest
yield and water productivity. The modied gated pipe received less water than the traditional gated pipe,
due to its high application efciency. In addition to water saving, there is an economic benet for using
1.5 m gate spacings as its cost is low (14 gates per 21 m pipe length) in comparison with 1.0 m and 0.7 m
spacings. The results conrmed SALTMED ability to simulate with high precision, soil moisture, dry mat-
ter, water productivity and yield for potato under gated pipe irrigation. Therefore, the model can be used
for design purposes to identify the optimum and economic gate spacings without the need to conduct
expensive, costly and labor intensive eld trials.
2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Surface irrigation is one of the oldest methods of irrigation in
the world. However surface irrigation (basin, border, surge, and
furrow) results in eld water losses ranging between 30 and 40%
(Keller and Keller, 1995). Waterlogging and low application ef-
ciency are the main problems usually associated with the use of
surface irrigation in the Nile Delta (Ali and Mohammed, 2015).
The use of a gated pipe system is recognized as a more efcient
system of surface irrigation. Goyal, (2014) reported that the irriga-
tion application efciency of improved gated pipes can reach up to
Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: ahmedfaris30@yahoo.com, mammohand2005@gmail.com
(A.F. El-Shae).
81%. Gated pipe irrigation utilizes portable rigid pipes or exible
tubing with uniformly-spaced and manually adjustable outlets for
diverting water into the furrows. The traditional gated pipe system
has uniformly spaced orices, and is usually made of aluminium
or PVC. It has a sliding gate on each outlet to control the area of
each orice to supply the required amount of water to the plant
in the eld. It is operated under the pressure-head. The gated pipe
system has many advantages, such as little wastage of water, easy
handling, the possibility to irrigate a large number of furrows simul-
taneously and the fact that it does not interfere with agricultural
operations (Muzmuder, 1983). The modied gated pipe system,
or self-compensating gated pipe (SCGO), usually has an internal
piece of exible diaphragm inside the gate changes shape to main-
tain constant pressure along the pipe (El-Hagarey, 2015). Uniform
water ow from each outlet is regulated by sliding gates adjust-
ing the size of the outlet opening to get the desired ow along

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2016.02.002
0378-3774/ 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Please cite this article in press as: El-Shae, A.F., et al., Predicting soil moisture distribution, dry matter, water productivity and potato
yield under a modied gated pipe irrigation system: SALTMED model application using eld experimental data. Agric. Water Manage.
(2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2016.02.002
G Model
AGWAT-4398; No. of Pages 13 ARTICLE IN PRESS
2 A.F. El-Shae et al. / Agricultural Water Management xxx (2016) xxxxxx
the pipe (Smith and Gillies, 2010; El-Awady et al., 2005). El-Shae
et al. (2009) tested the Self- Compensating Gated Outlet (SCGO) and
reported that the performance analysis showed that the average
discharge of 29 l min1 was obtained at pressure range of 59 kPa
with coefcients of variation of less than 0.9%. El-Hagarey et al.
(2010) developed and evaluated auto-compensating nozzle (pop-
pet nozzle) and found that poppet nozzle compensates the pressure
head difference along irrigation pipes and produces stable and har-
monized ow along the pipes.
Irrigation management models can be useful tools to investigate
the soil moisture distribution uniformity and irrigation efciency of
systems such as gated pipe. In the latter, different gates might have
different discharge rates leading to non-uniform soil moisture. In
such case, models could help in improving the water distribution
by identifying the best set of parameters to be used. One of these
irrigation water management model is SALTMED.
The early version of the SALTMED model has been successfully
tested against eld data of tomato grown in Syria and Egypt for ve
seasons 20002002 in both countries (Ragab et al., 2005a,b). The
latest model developments have been published by Ragab (2010,
2015). The model has been successfully applied in a sugar cane eld
experiment in Iran (Golabi et al., 2009), on several eld crops in
north-east Brazil (Montenegro et al., 2010), on tomato and potato
in Italy, Crete and Serbia (Ragab et al., 2015), on sweetcorn, chick-
pea and quinoa in Morocco (Hirich et al., 2012, 2014; Fghire et al.,
2015), on quinoa in Denmark (Razzaghi et al., 2011), on chick pea
in Portugal (Silva et al., 2013) and on quinoa and amaranth in Italy
(Pulvento et al., 2013, 2015). In all those tests, the model was suc-
cessfully able to simulate dry matter and nal yield, soil moisture
and nitrogen proles.
Therefore, the SALTMED model was selected for this study. The
main objectives of this study are to predict yield, water productivity
and soil moisture for traditional and modied (SCGO) gated pipe
irrigation systems under three spacings between gates, 0.7, 1.0 and
1.5 m, using SALTMED model and to assess the models ability as a
design tool to obtain the optimum gate spacings.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. The experimental site
The eld experiment was carried out at the Faculty of Agricul-
ture farm, Ain-Shams University Shalakan, Kalubia Governorate,
Egypt. The eld is located at latitude 31 4 E, longitude 30 13 N,
14 m above sea level. The site is representative of the old alluvial soil
of the Nile Delta. The eld experiment on potato crop included two
irrigation systems during two successive seasons of 20112012 and
20122013. The experimental site is characterized by a semi-arid
climate. The averages of the two seasons meteorological data at the
experimental station of Shalakan are shown in Table 1. The soil of
the site has a clayloam texture along the entire prole. The main
physical properties were determined in situ and in the laboratory
at the beginning of the trial and are reported in Table 2.
2.2. Irrigation system description
Two systems were studied, the rst system is a modied gated
pipe being self-compensating gate outlet (SCGO), while the sec-
ond is traditional gated pipe. Three spacings between gates along
the pipeline 0.7, 1.0 and 1.5 m, were considered. These spacings
are standard manufacturer design. In the gated pipe system, the
pipeline is made of PVC of 110 mm diameter, with gated outlet
diameter 50 mm.
Traditional gated pipe usually exhibits a range of pressure head
variations along the pipeline as well as non-uniform discharge
Please cite this article in press as: El-Shae, A.F., et al., Predicting soil moisture distribution, dry matter, water productivity and potato
yield under a modied gated pipe irrigation system: SALTMED model application using eld experimental data. Agric. Water Manage.
(2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2016.02.002
from orices while the modied gated pipe system, or self-
compensating gated pipe (SCGO), usually has an internal piece of
exible diaphragm inside the gate that changes shape to maintain
constant pressure along the pipe (El-Shae et al., 2009; El-Hagarey
et al., 2010; El-Hagarey, 2015).
Before the start of the growing seasons, the water discharge was
measured in the eld for traditional and modied gated pipe of
0.7, 1.0 and 1.5 m spacing between gates. In general there was a
slight variation in discharge between the rst and the last gate of
the modied gated pipe under 0.7, 1.0 and 1.5 m spacing. The data
indicated good uniformity of discharge from each outlet being reg-
ulated along the pipeline under modied gated pipe for all spacings
as the SCGO automatically adjusts its discharge, pressure head and
uniformity of water distribution along the pipeline. The data of the
traditional gated pipe system showed a slight variation in discharge
between gates under the 1.5 m spacing between gates, while there
was more variation in discharge between gates under 0.7 and 1.0 m
spacing between gates.
2.3. Experimental design
The experimental design was split plot with three replications.
The total area of the experiment was 3168 m2 and was divided
into six main plots of 528 m2 each; every plot was divided into
three sub-plots. Each sub plot had the same number of furrows
and were 70 cm apart. Layout of the experimental design and spac-
ings between gates of irrigation systems are shown in (Fig. 1).
Discharges from gates were measured under operating pressure
of 0.28 bar.
Potato crop was chosen for this study. All the plots received
full irrigation requirements and the same fertilizer amounts. Potato
seeds were transplanted to each furrow at 25 cm distance between
plants. The plant density is the same for each treatment. Three
samples were taken at different times during growth period stages
(40, 70 and 110 days after transplant) to measure the dry matter.
The yield was harvested after 115 days of crop transplanting in
the two growing seasons to measure tuber fresh yield, and water
productivity.
2.4. SALTMED model
A detailed description of the SALTMED model and the equa-
tions of the key processes of evapotranspiration, water and solute
transport, the nitrogen cycle, drainage and crop growth have been
provided by Ragab (2002, 2015) and Ragab et al. (2005a, 2005b).
The model is suitable for all irrigation systems. The model calculates
the reference evapotranspiration (ETo) by several methods among
them is the FAO modied PenmanMonteith equation according
to Allen et al. (1998), which was selected for this study. SALTMED
provides a detailed plant growth process for biomass calculation.
SALTMED also produces information on crop growth stage length
and the relative yield for future climatic scenarios, so this approach
could be a useful decision support system for sustainable agro-
nomic management (Pulvento et al., 2015).
The model input consists of meteorological data, irrigation data,
water quality, crop parameters, nitrogen fertilizers and soil param-
eters. Meteorological data were obtained from the eld weather
station (temperature, relative humidity, radiation, wind speed
and rainfall). Crop-specic input data were the Leaf Area Index,
LAI, plant height, maximum and minimum root depth, and each
growth stage length. The irrigation input values were those applied
in the eld for the two irrigation systems (traditional and self-
compensating gated pipe) and for the three spacings between
gates along pipeline (0.7, 1.0 and 1.50 m), during 20112012 and
20122013 growth seasons. The soil prole, which has clayloam
properties, was divided into four layers of 0.000.20, 0.200.30,
G Model
AGWAT-4398; No. of Pages 13 ARTICLE IN PRESS
A.F. El-Shae et al. / Agricultural Water Management xxx (2016) xxxxxx 3

Table 1
Average of two seasons (transplant harvest 115 Days) meteorological data at experimental station of Shalakan.

Season Average max. Average min Average Average wind Average Average Total PM- ETo
temp C temp C sunshine h speed m s 1 humidity % precipitation mm
mm

1st from 5 November to 27 February 21.57 12.21 8.31 3.7 53.6 4 357.04
2nd from 4 November to 26 February 21.4 11.8 8.16 3.4 54.8 4.5 305.27

PM-ET0 is the reference evapotranspiration calculated using PenmanMontieth equation.

Table 2
Some physical properties of the soil.

Sample depth (cm) Particle size distribution (%) Texture class  * w % at BD*** (t m3 ) HC** (mm day1 )

Coarse sand Fine sand Silt Clay FC PWP AW

015 0.8 27.8 41.6 29.8 Clay loam 39.00 23.00 16.00 1.25 100
1530 0.7 27.5 41.2 30.6 Clay loam 31.21 15.00 16.21 1.28 100
3045 0.6 27.9 38.5 33.0 Clay loam 30.72 15.80 14.92 1.28 100
4560 0.6 28.7 37.0 33.7 Clay loam 30.78 16.10 14.68 1.29 100
*
is the volumetric soil moisture content, m3 m3 , FC is the eld capacity, PWP is the perminant wilting point, AW is the available water calculated as (FCPWP).
**
HC is the soil hydraulic conductivity, mm day1 .
***
BD is the soil bulk density, t m3 .

Fig. 1. Layout of the experimental design of gated pipe irrigation.

0.300.40 and 0.400.50 m depth, to allow using the actual initial
soil moisture conditions for better simulation of soil water dynam-
ics. The soil hydraulic properties for each layer were obtained from
eld and laboratory measurements.
3. Model application procedure
3.1. Calibration
ity, saturated soil water content, soil water content, lambda pore
size distribution index and bubbling pressure/air entry value. The
crop yield and total dry matter were calibrated using a stepwise
procedure. The rst step was to adjust the crop coefcient (Kc)
(Fig. 2), basal crop coefcient (Kcb), fraction cover (Fc) and plant
height. The second step was to ne-tune the crop growth param-
eters that affect biomass production, mainly the photosynthesis
efciency.

The SALTMED model was calibrated with data recorded for one
gate under traditional gated pipe with 0.7 m spacing between gates
by ne tuning soil and crop parameters to obtain good agreement
between simulated and observed values of yield, total dry matter
and soil moisture. The soil parameters that were subjected to ne
tuning during the calibration were saturated hydraulic conductiv-
3.2. Validation
The validation was carried out by comparing simulated data
with the observed data of yield, dry matter and soil moisture,
for both experimental years and both irrigation systems (tradi-
tional and self-compensating gated pipe) and for the three spacings

Please cite this article in press as: El-Shae, A.F., et al., Predicting soil moisture distribution, dry matter, water productivity and potato
yield under a modied gated pipe irrigation system: SALTMED model application using eld experimental data. Agric. Water Manage.
(2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2016.02.002
G Model
AGWAT-4398; No. of Pages 13 ARTICLE IN PRESS
4 A.F. El-Shae et al. / Agricultural Water Management xxx (2016) xxxxxx

Fig. 2. Main values of input crop parameters used in SALTMED model.

between gates along the pipeline (0.7, 1.0 and 1.5 m). The model R2 should equal to 0.0, 0.0, and 1.0, respectively. All the analyses
performance was evaluated by statistical and graphical methods. were made using Excel (Microsoft Inc.).
In the latter, the measured and simulated values of soil moisture
were plotted as time series. The response of the model, particu-
4. Results and discussion
larly the trend over time, can therefore be visually quantied. The
statistical approach involved the use of the goodness of t tests
4.1. Model calibration
proposed by Loague and Green (1991) to compare observed data
with the model predictions. The goodness of t expressions used
4.1.1. Soil moisture calibration
are the root mean square error (RMSE), the coefcient of determi-
The calibration of the soil moisture content for soil layers 020,
nation (R2 ), and the coefcient of residual mass (CRM). The RMSE
2030, 3040 and 4050 cm, was carried out using the data of the
values show by how much the simulations under or overestimate
0.7 m spacing between gates for the traditional system and was
the measurements.
compared with the values measured during the 20122013 season.

Fig. 3 shows the time series of the observed and simulated soil mois-
(yo ys )2
RMSE = (1) ture. There was a good agreement between simulated and observed
N soil moisture data for each soil layer. Fig. 4 presents the relationship
where between the observed and simulated soil moisture. The correla-
yo = observed value tion coefcient (R2 ) reached values of 0.92, 0.95, 0.86, and 0.90
ys = simulated value for soil layers 020, 2030, 3040 and 4050 cm, respectively. It
N = total number of observations can be seen that there were no large variations in soil moisture in
The R2 statistics demonstrate the ratio between the scatter of the soil layers below 20 cm depth due to the frequent irrigation,
simulated values to the average value of measurements: which kept the soil moisture at high value, above 0.30 m3 m3 . As
  expected, the top layers showed more variation in soil moisture
 
1 yo yo ys ys during the season as this layer is subjected to fast changes caused
2
R = (2) by inltration, soil evaporation and water uptake by the roots. The
N yo ys
calculated RMSE was 0.017, 0.051, 0.009 and 0.017 and the CRM was
0.006, 0.003, 0.021 and 0.054 for the 020, 2030, 3040 and
where 4050 cm soil layers, respectively. Especially for the top soil layer
yo = averaged observed value (020 cm), SALTMED proved its high sensitivity to simulate sudden
ys = averaged simulated value soil moisture changes due to irrigation events and soil evaporation
yo = observed data standard deviation losses through the soil surface.
ys = simulated data standard deviation.
The coefcient of residual mass (CRM) is dened by:
  4.1.2. Dry matter and yield calibration
( yo ys ) The second step in the calibration was to ne-tune the crop
CRM =  (3)
growth parameters that affect biomass production, such as pho-
yo
tosynthesis efciency. The dry matter was calibrated for potato
The CRM is a measure of the tendency of the model to over- or for the 0.7 m, spacing between gates of the traditional system and
underestimate the measurements. Negative values for CRM indi- was compared with the values measured in the 20122013 sea-
cate that the model underestimates the measurements and positive son. As shown in Fig. 5 the correlation coefcient (R2 ) between
values for CRM indicate a tendency to overestimate. For a perfect observed and simulated dry matter was 0.98. It can be seen that
t between observed and simulated data, values of RMSE, CRM and there were no large variations in dry matter. The calculated RMSE

Please cite this article in press as: El-Shae, A.F., et al., Predicting soil moisture distribution, dry matter, water productivity and potato
yield under a modied gated pipe irrigation system: SALTMED model application using eld experimental data. Agric. Water Manage.
(2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2016.02.002
G Model
AGWAT-4398; No. of Pages 13 ARTICLE IN PRESS
A.F. El-Shae et al. / Agricultural Water Management xxx (2016) xxxxxx 5

Fig. 3. Observed and simulated soil moisture in the 4 layers for 0.7 m spacings between gates in the traditional irrigation system during 20122013 season, simulated with
SALTMED as calibration. Irrigation events are plotted as histogram.

Fig. 4. Correlation between observed and simulated soil moisture in the 4 layers for 0.7 m, spacing between gates during 20122013, simulated with SALTMED as calibration.

was 0.1 and the CRM was 0.05, which indicates a good agree-
ment between simulated and observed dry matter. The nal yield
was successfully calibrated with only 2% difference between the
observed (18.145 t ha1 ) and simulated yield (18.522 t ha1 ).
4.2. Model validation
After the calibration, the model was validated for each irrigation
gate spacing for both years. The same set of the calibrated soil and
crop parameters were used in validation of all other treatments.
4.2.1. Soil moisture validation.
4.2.1.1. Soil moisture validation for the 20112012 season. The sim-
ulated soil moisture content under the traditional irrigation system
with 0.7, 1.0 and 1.5 m spacings between gates for soil layers 020,
2030, 3040 and 4050 cm during the 20112012 season is shown
in Fig. 6 (A, B, C and D). As expected, the top layers showed more
variation in soil moisture during the season. The soil moisture of the
top 20 cm layer showed slight variation under the 0.7 and 1.0 m
spacing, with soil moisture kept around 0.3 m3 m3 in the initial
growth stage and around 0.174 m3 m3 in the end growth stage.
The soil moisture for the 2030, 3040 and 4050 cm layers were

Please cite this article in press as: El-Shae, A.F., et al., Predicting soil moisture distribution, dry matter, water productivity and potato
yield under a modied gated pipe irrigation system: SALTMED model application using eld experimental data. Agric. Water Manage.
(2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2016.02.002
G Model
AGWAT-4398; No. of Pages 13 ARTICLE IN PRESS
6 A.F. El-Shae et al. / Agricultural Water Management xxx (2016) xxxxxx

Fig. 5. Correlation between observed and simulated dry matter (t ha1 ) for 0.7 m
spacing between gates during the 20122013 season, simulated with SALTMED as
calibration.

kept between 0.32 to 0.29 m3 m3 over the season. Fig. 6 also shows
that there was only a slight variation in soil moisture for the 0.7,
1.0 and 1.5 m gate spacings in the initial growth stage. Soil moisture
under 1.5 m spacing increased in the mid and end growth stages in
comparison with 0.7 and 1.0 m gate spacings for traditional gated
pipe.
The soil moisture content under modied gated pipe for soil
layers 020, 2030, 3040 and 4050 cm, during the 20112012
season is shown in Fig. 7 (AD). Soil moisture content of the
top 20 cm layer for the modied gated pipe was kept around
0.37 m3 m3 in the initial growth stage and 0.197 m3 m3 by the
end of growth stage. Soil moisture remained between 0.33 to
0.29 m3 m3 for the layers 2030, 3040 and 4050 cm over the
season under 0.7 and 1.0 m gate spacings. Soil moisture under 1.5 m
spacing increased in the mid and end growth stages in comparison
with the 0.7 and 1.0 m gate spacings for the modied gated pipes.
Figs. 6 and 7 show that the soil moisture under modied gated pipe
increased in comparison with the traditional gated pipe under 0.7,
1.0 and 1.5 m gate spacings due to uniformity of water ow and
pressure head from each outlet being regulated along the pipeline.
SALTMED proved its high sensitivity to simulate sudden soil
moisture changes due to irrigation events. Table 3 summarizes the
goodness of t expressed as coefcient of determination R2 , RMSE
and CRM for traditional and modied gated pipe for the rst sea-
son. There was a good agreement between simulated and observed
values.

4.2.1.2. Soil moisture validation for the 20122013 season. The soil
moisture content under traditional gated pipe with 0.7, 1.0 and
1.5 m spacings between gates for soil layers 020, 2030, 3040
and 4050 cm, during the 20122013 season is shown in Fig. 8
(AD). As seen in 2011-2012, the top layers showed more variation
in soil moisture during the season. Soil moisture of top 020 and
2030 cm layers under 0.7 m spacing remained around 0.34 and
0.36 m3 m3 , respectively, in the initial growth stage and around
0.174 and 0.18 m3 m3 , respectively, by the end growth stage. The
Fig. 6. A, B, C and D. Observed and simulated soil moisture in the 4 layers for tradi-
soil moisture for the 3040 and 4050 cm soil layers remained
tional gated pipe, spacings between gates 0.7, 1.0 and 1.5 m during the 20112012
between 0.32 and 0.29 m3 m3 , respectively, over the entire sea- season, simulated with SALTMED as validation. Irrigation events are plotted as his-
son. Fig. 8 also shows that there is a slight variation in soil moisture togram.
for the 0.7, 1.0 and 1.5 gate spacings in the initial growth stage. At
later stages, soil moisture under the 1.5 m spacing increased in the
mid and end growth stages in comparison with 0.7 and 1.0 m gate moisture under 1.5 m spacing increased in the mid and end growth
spacings of the traditional gated pipe. stages in comparison with 0.7 and 1.0 m gate spacings for modied
The soil moisture content under modied gated pipe for soil gated pipe. Figs. 8 and 9 show that the soil moisture under modi-
layers 020, 2030, 3040 and 4050 cm, during the 20122013 ed gated pipe was higher in comparison with the traditional gated
season is shown in Fig. 9 (AD). Soil moisture content of the pipe under 0.7, 1.0 and 1.5 m gate spacings. This is possibly due to
top 20 cm layer for the modied gated pipe remained around the fact that SCGO was designed to self-compensate the pressure
0.34 m3 m3 in the initial growth stage and 0.22 m3 m3 by the head differences and improve uniformity of discharge from each
end growth stages. During the season, the soil moisture for the outlet along the pipeline.
2030, 3040 and 4050 cm layers remained between 0.33 and The correlation between simulated and observed soil moisture
0.29 m3 m3 for the 0.7 and 1.0 m gate spacings, respectively. Soil for 20112012 season under traditional and modied gated pipes

Please cite this article in press as: El-Shae, A.F., et al., Predicting soil moisture distribution, dry matter, water productivity and potato
yield under a modied gated pipe irrigation system: SALTMED model application using eld experimental data. Agric. Water Manage.
(2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2016.02.002
G Model
AGWAT-4398; No. of Pages 13 ARTICLE IN PRESS
A.F. El-Shae et al. / Agricultural Water Management xxx (2016) xxxxxx 7

Fig. 7. A, B, C and D. Observed and simulated soil moisture in the 4 layers for modied gated pipe, spacings between gates 0.7, 1.0 and 1.5 m during the 20112012 season,
simulated with SALTMED as validation. Irrigation events are plotted as histogram.

for the four soil layers is indicated by good R2 values. The simulated
and observed soil moisture for soil layers 020, 2030, 3040 and
4050 cm indicated that there was a good agreement between sim-
ulated and observed values for traditional and modied gated pipe.
The average R2 for the soil layers 020, 2030, 3040 and 4050 cm
ranged between 0.74 to 0.96 and 0.89 to 0.96, with average values
of 0.87 and 0.94, for traditional and modied gated pipes, respec-
tively. Similarly, for 20122013, the average R2 values for the soil
layers 020, 2030, 3040 and 4050 cm ranged from 0.76 to 0.96
and 0.87 to 0.94, with average values of 0.89 and 0.91, for traditional
and modied gated pipes, respectively.
Tables 3 and 4 summarize the goodness of t for the 20112012
and 20122013 seasons expressed as determination coefcient R2 ,
RMSE and CRM for the measured and simulated soil moisture for
the two irrigation systems and the three gate spacings. The different
indices indicate that SALTMED model is able to predict and estimate
soil moisture. A good agreement was achieved for the 020, 2030,
3040 and 4050 cm layers. However, for both seasons, there was
a much better agreement under the modied gated pipe.
In the general, the soil moisture distribution under modied
gated pipe was higher in comparison with the traditional gated pipe
for the two growing seasons under all spacings. This is attributed

Please cite this article in press as: El-Shae, A.F., et al., Predicting soil moisture distribution, dry matter, water productivity and potato
yield under a modied gated pipe irrigation system: SALTMED model application using eld experimental data. Agric. Water Manage.
(2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2016.02.002
G Model
AGWAT-4398; No. of Pages 13 ARTICLE IN PRESS
8 A.F. El-Shae et al. / Agricultural Water Management xxx (2016) xxxxxx

Table 3
The coefcient of determination, R2 , RMSE and CRM for soil moisture in the 4 layers for 0.7, 1.0 and 1.5 m, spacings between gates.

20112012 season

Irrigation systems Gate spacings (m) Soil layers (cm)

020 2030 3040 4050

R2 RMSE CRM R2 RMSE CRM R2 RMSE CRM R2 RMSE CRM

Traditional 0.7 0.90 0.019 0.0008 0.86 0.025 0.069 0.81 0.01 0.02 0.74 0.01 0.02
gated 1.0 0.92 0.026 0.07 0.83 0.011 0.016 0.86 0.012 0.03 0.76 0.011 0.03
pipe 1.5 0.92 0.02 0.04 0.96 0.02 0.06 0.92 0.02 0.06 0.92 0.02 0.06
Modied 0.7 0.94 0.02 0.02 0.96 0.005 0.011 0.92 0.01 0.03 0.96 0.01 0.0008
gated 1.0 0.94 0.02 0.05 0.95 0.02 0.07 0.96 0.02 0.07 0.95 0.01 0.05
pipe 1.5 0.92 0.02 0.04 0.95 0.02 0.06 0.91 0.02 0.06 0.89 0.02 0.05

Fig. 8. A, B, C and D. Observed and simulated soil moisture in the 4 layers for traditional gated pipe, spacings between gates 0.7, 1.0 and 1.5 m during 20122013, simulated
with SALTMED as validation. Irrigation events plotted as histogram.

Please cite this article in press as: El-Shae, A.F., et al., Predicting soil moisture distribution, dry matter, water productivity and potato
yield under a modied gated pipe irrigation system: SALTMED model application using eld experimental data. Agric. Water Manage.
(2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2016.02.002
G Model
AGWAT-4398; No. of Pages 13 ARTICLE IN PRESS
A.F. El-Shae et al. / Agricultural Water Management xxx (2016) xxxxxx 9

Fig. 9. A, B, C and D. Observed and simulated soil moisture in the 4 layers for modied gated pipe, spacings between gates 0.7, 1.0 and 1.5 m during 20122013, simulated
with SALTMED as validation. Irrigation events plotted as histogram.

to the fact that traditional gated pipe usually exhibits a range of
pressure head variation along the pipeline as well as non-uniform
discharge from orices while the modied gated pipe system, uses
self-compensating gated pipes (SCGO) that stabilize the pressure
heads and produce more uniform water discharge along the pipe.
4.2.2. Yield, dry matter and water productivity
4.2.2.1. Yield. The yield of potato for both traditional and modi-
ed gated pipe under different spacings between gates for the two
seasons is shown in Fig. 10. The yields under all gate spacings were
close to each other for the modied gated pipe and were higher than
the yield of the traditional gated pipe. The increase in yield is due to
the fact that the modied gated pipe contains a self-compensating
pressure device that helps in delivering a more uniform water dis-
charge from the gates outlet along the pipeline in comparison with
the traditional gated pipe. The 1.5 m spacing had the highest yield
followed by 1.0 m, then 0.7 m for modied and traditional gated

Please cite this article in press as: El-Shae, A.F., et al., Predicting soil moisture distribution, dry matter, water productivity and potato
yield under a modied gated pipe irrigation system: SALTMED model application using eld experimental data. Agric. Water Manage.
(2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2016.02.002
G Model
AGWAT-4398; No. of Pages 13 ARTICLE IN PRESS
10 A.F. El-Shae et al. / Agricultural Water Management xxx (2016) xxxxxx

Table 4
The coefcient of determination, R2 , RMSE and CRM for soil moisture in the 4 layers for 0.7, 1.0 and 1. m, spacings between gates.

Second season, 20122013

Irrigation systems Gate spacings (m) Soil layers (cm)

020 2030 3040 4050

R2 RMSE CRM R2 RMSE CRM R2 RMSE CRM R2 RMSE CRM

Traditional 0.7 0.92 0.017 0.006 0.94 0.051 0.003 0.85 0.009 0.021 0.89 0.017 0.054
gated 1.0 0.91 0.024 0.063 0.86 0.01 0.038 0.87 0.013 0.038 0.76 0.03 0.03
pipe 1.5 0.94 0.024 0.068 0.96 0.021 0.064 0.91 0.02 0.06 0.86 0.022 0.067
Modied 0.7 0.91 0.022 0.055 0.94 0.025 0.07 0.9 0.022 0.07 0.87 0.016 0.049
gated 1.0 0.92 0.022 0.055 0.92 0.025 0.071 0.92 0.022 0.071 0.89 0.016 0.049
pipe 1.5 0.93 0.025 0.068 0.91 0.022 0.064 0.93 0.021 0.06 0.89 0.022 0.066

Fig. 10. Potato crop yield under different gate spacings for two seasons.

pipe. The increase in yield is due to small variations in discharge
between gates under 1.5 m spacings of traditional gated pipe.
The correlation between the observed and simulated potato
yield for traditional and modied gated pipe under different gate
spacings during the two seasons showed that the R2 for the tradi-
tional irrigation system, for all gate spacings was 1.0 and 0.99, RMSE
was 0.79 and 0.76 and CRM was 0.023 and 0.021 for rst and
second season, respectively. The R2 for the modied irrigation sys-
tem, under all gate spacings was 0.94 and 0.92, RMSE was 0.65 and
0.67 and CRM was 0.015 and 0.016 for rst and second seasons,
respectively.
Higher and uniformly distributed soil moisture under the mod-
ied gated pipe system helped to obtain a good growth and better
yield when compared with the traditional pipe gated system.
The good agreement between simulated and observed values
showed that the SALTMED model is a powerful tool in yield predic-
tion and could be useful to run with what if scenarios to assess
the impact of hypothetical gate spacings on yield.
dry matter of all gate spacings was around 0.6, 1.2 and 2.2 t h1 for
the three samples taken during the progressive growth stages. The
same results were obtained in the second season as total dry matter
was not affected by gate spacings. There was a very good relation-
ship between observed and simulated total dry matter during the
two seasons. The R2 for traditional gated pipe with 0.7, 1.0 and 1.5 m
spacing was 0.97, 0.98 and 0.99, respectively and R2 for the modied
gated pipe with 0.7, 1.0 and 1.5 m spacing was 0.98, 0.98 and 0.99,
respectively. The RMSE for traditional gated pipe was 0.13, 0.34 and
0.30 and CRM was 0.07, 0.25 and 0.21. The RMSE for modied
gated pipe was 0.28, 0.35 and 0.26 and CRM was 0.17, 0.25 and
0.15 under 0.7, 1.0 and 1.5 m gate spacings, respectively. These
data indicate that the SALTMED model accurately estimated dry
matter in the two seasons and for all gate spacings.
4.2.2.3. Water productivity. The water productivity is expressed
here in kg yield per m3 of water applied. Water productivity was
calculated from Eq. (4).

Water productivity (kg m3 )

4.2.2.2. Total dry matter. The total dry matter for potato crop under
modied and traditional gated pipe with 0.7, 1.0, 1.5 m gate spac- Marketable potato yields (kg ha1 )
= (4)
ings is shown in Fig. 11. There was no signicant difference in total Total applied irrigation (m3 ha1 )
dry matter among the spacings during the rst season. The total

Please cite this article in press as: El-Shae, A.F., et al., Predicting soil moisture distribution, dry matter, water productivity and potato
yield under a modied gated pipe irrigation system: SALTMED model application using eld experimental data. Agric. Water Manage.
(2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2016.02.002
G Model
AGWAT-4398; No. of Pages 13 ARTICLE IN PRESS
A.F. El-Shae et al. / Agricultural Water Management xxx (2016) xxxxxx 11

Fig. 11. Potato crop dry matter under different gate spacings during the seasons, three samples were taken at different times during growth stags.

Fig. 12. Potato crop water productivity under different gate spacings for two seasons.

The trend observed for water productivity was similar to the
trend for the yield. Fig. 12 shows water productivity of potato for
the two seasons. Water productivity was higher for the modied
gated pipe than for the traditional gated pipe. For both the modi-
ed and traditional systems the 1.5 m gate spacings had the highest
water productivity followed by the 1.0 m then the 0.7 m spacing.
There was a good correlation between the observed and simulated
potato water productivity (kg m3 ) for traditional and modied
gated pipe under different gate spacings during both seasons. For
the traditional system, the R2 was 1.0 and 0.99, RMSE was 0.121
and 0.136 and CRM was 0.023 and 0.021 for rst and second
season, respectively. For the modied system, the R2 was 0.95 and
0.93, RMSE was 0.118 and 0.142 and CRM was 0.015 and 0.016
for rst and second season, respectively. There was a good agree-
ment between simulated and observed values, indicating that the
SALTMED model is a useful tool in water productivity prediction.
Table 5 shows the difference in nal yield and water productivity
between gate spacings for modied gated pipe in the 20112012
and 20122013 seasons was small. Yield and water productivity
under modied gated pipe were higher than under the traditional
system. For the 20112012 season using the modied gated pipe
system, nal yield was 22.45, 23.08 and 23.45 t ha1 and water pro-
ductivity was 4.08, 4.19 and 4.26 kg m3 for the 0.7, 1.0 and 1.5 m
spacings, respectively; under the traditional gated pipe system, the
yield was 17.40, 19.77 and 22.09 t ha1 and water productivity was
2.67, 3.03 and 3.38 kg m3 under gate spacings 0.7, 1.0 and 1.5 m,

Please cite this article in press as: El-Shae, A.F., et al., Predicting soil moisture distribution, dry matter, water productivity and potato
yield under a modied gated pipe irrigation system: SALTMED model application using eld experimental data. Agric. Water Manage.
(2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2016.02.002
G Model
AGWAT-4398; No. of Pages 13 ARTICLE IN PRESS
12 A.F. El-Shae et al. / Agricultural Water Management xxx (2016) xxxxxx

Fig. 13. Overall observed and simulated correlations for soil moisture of all layers, yield and dry matter for the two seasons and two irrigation systems.

Table 5
Observed and simulated yield and water productivity of potato.

Irrigation system Gate spacings Simulated yield Observed yield Relative Simulated Observed Relative Irrigation (mm)
(m) (tons ha1 ) (tons ha1 ) difference water water difference
productivity productivity
(kg m3 ) (kg m3 )

20112012 season
Traditional 0.7 17.843 17.409 0.0249 2.73 2.67 0.0224 653
gated 1.0 20.224 19.775 0.0227 3.1 3.03 0.0231
pipe 1.5 22.558 22.091 0.0211 3.46 3.38 0.0236
Modied 0.7 22.911 22.451 0.0204 4.16 4.08 0.0196 551
gated 1.0 23.51 23.077 0.0187 4.27 4.19 0.0190
pipe 1.5 23.622 23.459 0.0069 4.29 4.26 0.0070
20122013 season
Traditional 0.7 18.522 18.145 0.0207 3.3 3.23 0.0216 562
gated 1.0 20.871 20.398 0.0231 3.72 3.63 0.0247
pipe 1.5 22.81 22.339 0.0210 4.06 3.98 0.0201
Modied 0.7 23.611 23.151 0.0198 4.97 4.88 0.0184 475
gated 1.0 23.78 23.34 0.0188 5.01 4.92 0.0182
pipe 1.5 23.86 23.616 0.0103 5.03 4.97 0.0120

Relative difference = [(Observed Simulated)/Observed].

respectively. Also for the 20122013 season the yield and water
productivity of the modied gated pipe were higher than for the
traditional system. Final yield for the modied system was 23.15,
23.34 and 23.61 t ha1 and water productivity was 4.88, 4.92 and
4.97 kg m3 under gate spacings 0.7, 1.0 and 1.5 m, respectively. For
the traditional gated pipe system, nal yield was 18.15, 20.39 and
22.33 t ha1 and water productivity was 3.23, 3.63 and 3.98 kg m3
under gate spacings 0.7, 1.0 and 1.5 m, respectively. However, mod-
ied gated pipe received less water, as shown in Table 5. On the
other hand the cost of 1.5 m spacings between gates, requiring 14
gates, is low in comparison with the 1.0 m spacing, requiring 21
gates, and the 0.7 m spacing, requiring 30 gates, for a gated pipeline
of 21 m length.
4.3. Overall model performance
The SALTMED model proved its ability to predict soil moisture
availability, yield, and total dry matter for two growing seasons
under traditional and modied (SCGO) gated pipe using three spac-
ings between gates.
The overall model performance when combining all seasons,
irrigation systems and soil layers has been evaluated. As shown in
Fig. 13 the determination coefcient R2 was 0.81, 0.99 and 0.94 for
soil moisture, yield and dry matter, respectively. The results indi-
cated that the SALTMED model can be used in forecast mode using
what if eld management scenarios with reasonable degree of
condence. The results conrmed that the model is able to han-
dle several hydrodynamic processes acting at the same time in the
soilcropwateratmosphere continuum. Good model estimation
of soil moisture has practical implications, it means that the model
is able to estimate the amount of irrigation supply required to bring
the soil moisture prole from a given soil moisture to a desired soil
moisture to maximize the crop yield. In addition, good simulation of
soil moisture means good estimation of solute and nutrient status
and uptake at the same time.
5. Conclusions
In the current study, the experimental and SALTMED model-
ing results indicated that the regulated irrigation using modied
gated pipe leads to an increase in soil moisture and subsequently
an increase in the yield in comparison with traditional gated pipe.
The spacings between gates has an effect on yield under modi-
ed gated pipe irrigation. The gate spacings of 1.5 m had relatively
higher yield in both irrigation systems with the modied sys-
tem giving higher yields than the traditional one. The results also

Please cite this article in press as: El-Shae, A.F., et al., Predicting soil moisture distribution, dry matter, water productivity and potato
yield under a modied gated pipe irrigation system: SALTMED model application using eld experimental data. Agric. Water Manage.
(2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2016.02.002
G Model
AGWAT-4398; No. of Pages 13 ARTICLE IN PRESS
A.F. El-Shae et al. / Agricultural Water Management xxx (2016) xxxxxx
indicated that using 1.5 m gate spacings for traditional gated pipe
gave the highest yields, followed by the 1.0 m gate spacing, the
0.7 m gate spacings gave the lower yield during both the 20112012
and the 20122013 season. Applying modied gated pipe improved
water productivity in both seasons. The highest water productiv-
ities were associated with 1.5 m gate spacings. The 1.5 m spacing
is also nancially interesting as for a 21 m gated pipe line the cost
of 1.5 m spacings between gates, requiring 14 gates, will be much
lower than the cost of 1.0 m spacing, requiring 21 gates and the
0.7 m spacing, requiring 30 gates.
The SALTMED model was able to simulate with good accuracy
the soil moisture, dry matter, growth and yield of potato grown
on clay loam soil under gated pipe irrrigation system in Egypt. The
model, after being successfully tested, can now be run with what if
scenarios depicting a variation of gate spacings to select the opti-
mum spacing for further test in the eld without the need for extra
eld trials.
Acknowledgments
This research was funded by the Science and Technology Devel-
opment Fund in Egypt, (STDF), Short Term Fellowship program,
through the project A Simulation Model for Predicting Water Dis-
tribution under Self Compensating Gated Pipe Irrigation Technique
for Small Holdings.The rst author is grateful to the Centre for
Ecology & Hydrology Wallingford, UK and its staff members for
the support to carry out the SALTMED modelling work during
his stay in 2015. Thanks are also extended to the technical staff
of the Water Relations and Field Irrigation Department, National
Research Centre and the technical staff of the Agricultural Engi-
neering Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Ain Shams University,
Egypt. The rst author would like to thank Professor Dr. Ragab
Ragab for his supervision and his efforts during the SALTMED mod-
elling training at CEH, Wallingford, UK, for four months starting
from March, 2015.
References
Ali, O.A., Mohammed, A.S., 2015. Performance evaluation of gated pipes technique
for improving surface irrigation efciency in maize hybrids. Agric. Sci. 6 (5),
550.
Allen, R.G., Raes, P.L., Smith, M.D., 1998. Crop evapotranspirationguidelines for
computing crop water requirements. FAO Irrig. Drain. Paper 56 326.
El-Awady, M.N., El-Lithy, A.M., Osama, M.A., 2005. Design and testing of self-
compensating outlet for irrigation gated pipe. MISR J. Agric. Eng. 22 (3),
775791.
El-Hagarey, M.E., Al-koti, A.M., G.M., El-Gindy, 2010. Design of auto-compensating
nozzle for gated irrigation pipes, Online 113-132pp.
El-Hagarey, M, (2015), Innovative Automatic Self-Compensating Gated Irrigation
Pipes Edition: https://www.lap-publishing.com/, Publisher: Publishing house:
LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing, Editor: Mohamed El Hagarey, ISBN:
978-3-659-71286-9.
Please cite this article in press as: El-Shae, A.F., et al., Predicting soil moisture distribution, dry matter, water productivity and potato
yield under a modied gated pipe irrigation system: SALTMED model application using eld experimental data. Agric. Water Manage.
(2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2016.02.002
13
El-Shae, A.F., Osama, M.A., Hussein, M.M., El-Gindy, A.M., 2009. Performance
analysis of selfcompensating gated pipe for improving surface irrigation
efciency. MISR J. Agric. Eng. 26 (3), 13181335.
Fghire, R.W., Said, A., Fatima, I.A., Oudou, B.O., Ragab, R., 2015. Response of quinoa
to different water management strategies: eld experiments and SALTMED
model application results. Irrig. Prone Mediterr. Drain. 64 (1), 2940.
Golabi, M., Naseri, A.A., Kashkuli, H.A., 2009. Evaluation of SALTMED model
performance in irrigation and drainage of sugarcane farms in Khuzestan
province of Iran. J. Food Agric. Environ. 7, 874880.
Goyal Megh, R., 2014. Management, Performance, and Applications of Micro
Irrigation Systems Research Advances in Sustainable Micro Irrigation, CRC
Press, 19 Aug 2014 Nature 374 pages, 1771880694 9781771880695.
Hirich, A., Ragab, R., Jacobsen, S.E., El Yous, L., El Omari, H., 2012. Using decit
irrigation with treated wastewater in the production of quinoa (Chenopodium
quinoa Willd.) in Morocco. Revista Cientca UDO Agrcola 12 (3), 570583.
Hirich, A., Ragab, R., Choukr-Allah, R., Rami, A., 2014. The effect of decit irrigation
with treated wastewater on sweet corn: experimental and modelling study
using SALTMED model. Irrig. Sci. 32 (3), 205219.
Keller, A., Keller, J., 1995. Effective efciency: a water use concept for allocating
freshwater resources. In: Water Resources and Irrigation Division. Winrock
International, Arlington, VA, USA, Discussion Paper22.
Loague, K., Green, R.W., 1991. Statistical and graphical methods for evaluating
solute transport models: overview and application. J. Contam. Hydrol. 7,
5173.
Montenegro, S.G., Abelardo, M., Ragab, R., 2010. Improving agricultural water
management in the semi-arid region of Brazil: experimental and modelling
study. Irrig. Sci. 28 (4), 301316.
Muzmuder, S.X., 1983. Irrigation Engineering. Mc-Graw-Hill Book Co.
Pulvento, C., Lavini, A., Riccardi, M., dAndria, R., Ragab, R., 2015. Assessing
amaranth adaptability in a mediterranean area of south Italy under different
climatic scenarios. Irrig. Drain. 64 (1), 5058.
Pulvento, C., Riccardi, M., Lavini, A., Dandria, R., Ragab, R., 2013. SALTMED model
to simulate yield and dry matter for quinoa crop and soil moisture content
under different irrigation strategies in south Italy. Irrig. Drain. 62 (2), 229238.
Ragab, R., 2002. A holistic generic integrated approach for irrigation, crop and eld
management: the SALTMED model. Environ. Modell. Software 17 (4), 345361.
Ragab, R., Malash, N., Gawad, G.A., Arslan, A., Ghaibeh, A., 2005a. A holistic generic
integrated approach for irrigation, crop and eld management: 1. The
SALTMED model and its calibration using eld data from Egypt and Syria.
Agric. Water Manage. 78 (1), 6788.
Ragab, R., Malash, N., Gawad, G.A., Arslan, A., Ghaibeh, A., 2005b. A holistic generic
integrated approach for irrigation, crop and eld management: 2. The
SALTMED model validation using eld data of ve growing seasons from Egypt
and Syria. Agric. Water Manage. 78 (1), 89107.
Ragab, R., 2010. SALTMED Model as an integrated management tool for water,
crop, soil and fertilizers. In: Gheyi, H.R., Dias, N.S., de Lacerda, C.F. (Eds.),
Manejo da salinidade na agricultura: Estudos basicos e aplicados. Instituto
Nacional de CienciaeTecnologia em Salinidade, Fortaleza, pp. 320336.
Ragab, R., 2015. Integrated management tool for water, crop, soil and N-fertilizers:
the saltmed model. Irrig. Drain. 64 (1), 112.
Ragab, R., Battilani, A., Matovic, G., Stikic, R., Psarras, G., Chartzoulakis, K., 2015.
SALTMED model as an integrated management tool for water, crop, soil and
N-fertilizer water management strategies and productivity: eld and
simulation study. Irrig. Drain. 64 (1), 1328.
Razzaghi, F., Plauborg, F., Ahmadi, S.H., Jacobsen, S.-E., Andersen, M.N., Ragab, R.,
2011. Simulation of quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.) response to soil
salinity using the SALTMED model, ICID 21st International Congress on
Irrigation and Drainage, 1523 October 2011, International Commission on
Irrigation and Drainage, Tehran, Iran, 25-32.
Silva, L.L., Ragab, R., Duarte, I., Lourenco, E., Simes, N., Chaves, M.M., 2013.
Calibration and validation of SALTMED model under dry and wet year
conditions using chickpea eld data from southern Portugal. Irrig. Sci. 31 (4),
651659.
Smith, R.J., Gillies, M.H., 2010. Head ditch hydraulics and the variability of
windows to irrigation furrows. Irrig. Drain. 59 (4), 442452.