Journal of Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers ISSN:1738-3692(Print) 2093-7709(Online) 한국농공학회논문집

Due to droughts and water shortages causing severe damage to crops and other vegetations, much attention has been given to efficient irrigation for upland farming. However, little information has been known to measure soil moisture levels in a field scale and apply their spatial variability for proper irrigation scheduling. This study aimed to characterize the spatial variability and temporal stability of soil water contents at depths of 10 cm, 20 cm and 30 cm on flat (loamy soil) and hill-slope fields (silt-loamy soil). Field monitoring of soil moisture contents was used for variogram analysis using GS+ software. Kriging produced from the structural parameters of variogram was applied for the means of spatial prediction. The overall results showed that the surface soil moisture presented a strong spatial dependence at the sampling time and space in the field scale. The coefficient variation (CV) of soil moisture was within 7.0~31.3 % in a flat field and 8.3~39.4 % in a hill-slope field, which was noticeable in the dry season rather than the rainy season. The drought assessment analysis showed that only one day (Dec. 21st) was determined as dry (20.4 % and 24.5 % for flat and hill-slope fields, respectively). In contrary to a hill-slope field where the full irrigation was necessary, the centralized irrigation scheme was appeared to be more effective for a flat field based on the spatial variability of soil moisture contents. The findings of this study clearly showed that the geostatistical analysis of soil moisture contents greatly contributes to proper irrigation scheduling for water-efficient irrigation with maximal crop productivity and environmental benefits.