Comparison of different irrigation methods based on the parametric evaluation approach

Abstract

The main objective of this research is to compare two different irrigation methods according to parametric evaluation system in the Field Plants Central Research Institute-Ikizce Research Farm's soils located in southern Ankara. Soil properties of the study area including texture, depth, EC, drainage, carbonate content and slope were derived from a detailed soil map scaled 1/5000. After analyzing and evaluating soil properties using geographic information system techniques, gravity and drop irrigation suitability maps were generated. Results showed that 13.1% of the study area was highly suitable for surface and gravity irrigation methods, whereas 51.2% of the study area was highly suitable for drop irrigation method. On the other hand, it was found that some land mapping units coded 3, 16, 18 and 19 are not suitable for both irrigation systems. As a result, drop type was suggested the best irrigation system for more than half of the study area soils due to soil and topographic conditions. This study indicates that the geographic information system (GIS) technique has an important role to determine suitability of the study area soils for both gravity and drop irrigation systems. © Tübi?tak.