Potential benefits of increased application of water to paddy fields in Taiwan

• Published in: Hydrological processes Vol. 15; no. 8; pp. 1515 - 1524
• Main Authors: Chang, Yu-Chuan, Kan, Chun-E., Lin, Gwo-Fong, Chiu, Chao-Lin, Lee, Yuan-Chuan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Chichester, UK John Wiley & Sons, Ltd 15.06.2001; Wiley
• Subjects: Earth sciences; Earth, ocean, space; Exact sciences and technology; hydrological system; Hydrology; Hydrology. Hydrogeology; irrigation; paddy field; parameter estimation; Taiwan; water budget; Far East; Taiwan; agriculture; models; irrigation; percolation; Asia; mathematical models; water balance; rain water; digital simulation; evapotranspiration
• ISSN: 0885-6087; 1099-1085
• DOI: 10.1002/hyp.224

The potential benefits of increased application of water to paddy fields in Taiwan are investigated in this paper. A conceptual model is used to represent the hydrological system of the paddy field. A technique is presented to estimate the parameters of the model. Field experiments also are performed for parameter estimation and model verification. The simulated results are in good agreement with the observed during model verification. With parameters estimated from the field data, the model is used to simulate the effects of applying water beyond current practice. The simulation results show that the downward percolation increases when the irrigation water increases. However, the percolation reaches a capacity rate no matter how large the amount of water applied. This phenomenon results from the existence of a hard layer below the paddy field. The effects of raising the height of levees around paddy fields are also studied. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.