Gholam-gardeshy furrow irrigation is a modified form of furrow irrigation, mainly used in Iran. However, to date no research has been noted about the hydraulic performance of this method of irrigation. The use of this method of irrigation, especially in heavy soils and steep slopes, can reduce tail water runoff as well as increase application efficiency as compared to the furrow irrigation. To evaluate the performance of this method of irrigation and to compare the results with a furrow irrigation, in three experimental fields, (Khazaneh with sandy clay loam soil texture and 0.3%, I% and 2% soil slopes, University with sandy clay loam soil texture and 0.29"10soil slope and finally Roodasht with clay soil texture and 0.1% soil slope), ordinary and Gholam-gardeshy design of were designed and equipments including constant head water delivery system to the furrows were installed in any of the experimental fields. To determine the parameters of Kostiakov-Lewis infiltration equation, volume balance method was employed. The results showed that for the same irrigation time and inflow discharge the velocity of advance and tail water runoff was less for Gholam-gardeshy furrow irrigation as compared to the furrow irrigation. In the three experimental fields, for Gholam-gardeshy furrow irrigation, infiltration was more as compared with the furrow irrigation and as the slope of the field increases the differences between the two methods decrease. Both methods had nearly the same furrow cross section in the three experimental fields. In the three experimental fields, as the net depth of irrigation increased the application efficiency increased for either method. In both irrigation methods the determined advance equations were able to predict the measured data with a coefficient of determination of more than 90 percent. The difference between the two methods for longitudinal advance and infiltrated water along the field was significant at 5 percent level.

Furrow irrigation is the most common type of surface irrigation. Determine the advance and recession time in the field is required the accurate measurement and this can be costly and time consuming. WinSRFR model is used for simulation furrow irrigation by zero inertia and kinematic wave engines. Using this model, advance time, reaction time, infiltration depth, runoff depth and application efficiency are calculated and compared with field data. Also, different inflow hydrograph shapes such as steady, incremental, cut back and hydrograph has been investigated in the research field in Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman. Based on the results, the kinematic wave model, Because of assuming the uniform flow through the furrow's length, has lower precision than zero inertia engine. The results showed that when an inflow hydrograph shape has smooth changes, the precision is increased. The model has the highest accuracy in calculation of advance time (1.2%) in steady inflow hydrograph and lowest accuracy in calculation of advance time (11.2%) in incremental inflow hydrograph. The highest application efficiency and the lowest runoff are accrued in cutback inflow hydrograph with 72 and 28%, respectively.

The purpose of this research was to analyze surge irrigation system performance and optimize the design and management parameters. In this order, by creating furrows with a length of 80 m and 1. 1% slope and implementing four treatments of surge irrigation in two inflow rates of 0. 6 and 0. 8 lit/s and two cycle times of 40 and 50 minutes, different water and soil parameters were collected and SIRMOD (surface irrigation model) was calibrated and evaluated. Then, the iso-performance contour plots of irrigation system were obtained to optimize cutoff time and inflow rate under maximizing of application efficiency, distribution uniformity and requirement efficiency. The results indicated that in the experimented furrows with the texture of sandy loam, by providing requirement efficiency of 100%, in inflow rate of 1. 2 lit/s and cutoff time of 170 min, distribution uniformity and application efficiency will be 84% and 60% respectively. According to the results, by providing requirement efficiency of 100% and considering the best length of the furrow in different inflow rates, application efficiency increases up to maximum 65%. But if the requirement efficiency of 90% to be considered, at different inflow rates in certain length of furrow, there is possibility of achieving to application efficiency up to 90%.

The low irrigation application efficiency is the major problem of surface irrigation systems due to weak management and poor design. In this research, in order to analyze the performance of furrow irrigation system, a field experiment was conducted during maize growing season. Three furrow irrigation methods, conventional furrow irrigation, fixed alternate furrow irrigation and variable alternate furrow irrigation were considered to collect field data and, then, to evaluate the performance of WinSRFR (surface irrigation model). This model was calibrated and evaluated based on the experimental data with Zero-Inertia (ZI) and Kinematic Wave (KW) solutions. The sensitivity analysis of WinSRFR showed that the most sensitive parameters were inflow rate, cutoff time and parameters of the infiltration equation, respectively. There was a small difference between ZI and KW to estimate advance time, runoff and infiltration due to high field slope. The minimum absolute error for estimation of advance times was obtained about 1.5% (0.8 minute). The minimum absolute error in estimating runoff and infiltration were 5.7 and 5.0%, respectively. Using operations analysis of WinSRFR, the isoperformance contour plots of furrow irrigation system was obtained to optimize cutoff time and inflow rate under maximizing of application efficiency and distribution uniformity and minimizing of runoff and deep percolation. Application efficiency iso-performance contour plot of fixed alternate furrow irrigation, indicated by managing of cutoff time and inflow rate, application efficiency could be increasing from 54.5% in current evaluation to 74%, provided water supply of Dreq. Also based on this contour plot, increasing of application efficiency more than 74% was impossible provided water supply of Dreq, under current furrow geometry parameters and it was possible with changing furrow geometry parameters.

Agriculture development and improvement of soil and water resources productivity mainly depends onirrigation efficiency and reduction of water losses. This research was conducted in Borougen, Khanmirza and Shahrekord plain during 2010 growing season in order to evaluate the furrow irrigation systems.Evaluation of furrow irrigation systems were carried out in Potato fields in Borujen and maize fields in Khanmirza and Shahrekord plains. According to the results, application, conveyance, adequacy and overall irrigation efficiencies of Borujen plain were calculated 49.27, 83.65, 98.22 and 41.53 in percent, respectively. Such values for Khanmirz a plain were 55.41, 77.11, 60.2 and 41.58 percent and those of Shahrekord plain were, 61.41, 88.43, 84.24, 54.67 percent, respectively. The results show that the application and adequacy efficiencies of furrow irrigation systems in these plains are acceptable. The overall irrigation efficiency was low mainly due to conveyance efficiency. Lining the transmission canals, using the standard structures and using of gated pipes, instead of traditional methods especially in furrowirrigation, is recommended and can be useful for improving distribution efficiency on farm.

One of the common ways to increase efficiency in surface irrigation is the application of cutback systems in furrows. Volume balance model was applied to study and design cutback furrow irrigation, using information obtained from evaluation of green bean- cultivated furrows (in Karkaj Agricultural Research Station-Tabriz). Performance of the irrigation system was considered for three different designs: a-constant inflow system, b- cutback system in sets of two (time of advancing and soaking phases are equal), and c-reducing inflow after completion of advancing phase. The obtained results showed that the volume balance model had a very good adaptation with field data. It was shown that design b (cutback system in sets of two) was suitable only for light irrigation while desirable efficiencies for wide range of irrigation depths were obtained for design c. Since the control of the latter system in the field was difficult, so by accepting furrows' outflow increase to some extent a modification was adopted for design b. The obtained results showed a good capability of the modified system in surface irrigation design.      

Shortage and water crisis have made it essential to improve management and consequently to increase the efficiency of irrigation systems. Since a large percentage of agricultural lands in Iran are irrigated by furrow irrigation, research on this method application is required. In this study, the simulation accuracy of WinSRFR and SIRMOD models were compared and analyzed with the data taken from the farm of Agricultural Faculty, Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran, where the field experiments were also performed. The farm soil had clay loam texture with bulk density of 1. 18 g/cm3 under furrow irrigation. The length, depth, slope, and flowrate of the open-ended furrow under continuous flow were 25 m, 65 cm, 0. 007 m/m and 4 l/s respectively. The results showed that the percentage of average prediction error of advance time in the WinSRFR model was 7 percent less than the SIRMOD model. The value of λ in simulation of WinSRFR and SIRMOD models was 0. 82 and 0. 68 respectively, which estimated the error rate of 18 and 32 percent, respectively. In estimating the average infiltrated depth, the WinSRFR and SIRMOD models estimated the average infiltrated water depth with λ = 0. 97 and λ = 1. 11, respectively, showing that the WinSRFR model has carried out the simulation of application efficiency with a three-percent error and with higher accuracy than the SIRMOD model. The results showed that WinSRFR model is more applicable and higher accuracy than the SIRMOD model.

The application of fertilizer through irrigation water (fertigation) is an efficient and cost-effective method in which crop yield increases while potential environmental problems related to conventional application methods reduced. In this study, distribution uniformity of fertigation in different furrow irrigation regimes is evaluated, a numerical fertigation model established, calibrated and validated. Conducted experiments includ: injection of fertilizer only during the first half of the irrigation event (FH), injection during the second half (SH) and injection during the entire irrigation event (T). These options were conducted under free draining as well as under blocked-end conditions with two replications. All the experiments were conducted through cutback method. Potassium nitrate was used as fertilizer in the experiments. Distribution uniformity of low half (DULH) and low quarter (DULQ) of water and fertilizer was assessed to evaluate different fertigation scenarios. A sensitivity analysis approach was also performed to assess the effects of longitudinal dispersivity parameter on overland solute transport. The results show that DULH has significantly differs within the three application times (FH, SH, T). That shows injection in the second half of the irrigation event is more appropriate than injection in the first half and during the entire irrigation event as based on the results. The best case is injection in the second half of the irrigation event preferably starting before completion of the advance phase and in blocked-end conditions. Because in this case, solute losses due to runoff from the outlet is zero and also distribution uniformity is somewhat higher whereas in free-draining conditions fertilizer application during the first half of irrigation provide acceptable fertilizer uniformity and least losses due to runoff. Results of the model show that the best case would be injection in the second half of the irrigation event with blocked-end conditions. No significant difference was observed between distribution uniformity of free-draining and blocked-end experiments. It was found that dispersivity parameter doesn't affect the fertigation uniformity. A value of 5 ern for dispersivity provided a reasonable fit to the experimental data.