watertables

Irrigation Insights 2 - Subsurface Drainage Design and Management Practices in Irrigated Areas of Australia

It is widely understood that irrigation development results in deep percolation past the rootzone, which recharges the groundwater. With flood irrigation, watertables often rise at around 0.5 m a year until a new equilibrium is established where the watertable fluctuates from the soil surface to around 3 m deep. A significant part of all irrigation areas in Australia are currently in this condition or approaching such equilibrium. Irrigation areas in southeastern Australia, particularly in the Murray (more)...

Waterwheel Newsletter 15

Adopting improved use of current water monitoring technology to manage recharge

Rising watertables are a major threat to the sustainability of irrigated agriculture in the southern Murray-Darling Basin. Future sustainability will depend on the ability of each irrigation farmer to choose paddock-crop-irrigation management combinations that control impacts on watertables on their farm. There is a perception that the technology already exists to enable farmers to manage water sustainably, and that the problem is one of adoption rather than the development of new technology. However, (more)...