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

The objective of this study is to develop water saving irrigation method using water balance model in order to save rural water. Daily water balance components such as irrigation water, drainage water, effective rainfall, ET, and infiltration were measured in paddy fields. Model simulations were performed for different outlet heights and ponding depths. The outlet heights and the ponding depths are 2 cm, 4 cm, 6 cm, 8 cm, and 10 cm, respectively. Based on the simulation very shallow ponding depth of 2 cm with 10 cm outlet height showed the largest effective rainfall ratio and the smallest irrigation amount. Until the introduction of laser leveling dozer and automatic inlet control devices, it would be desirable to adopt 4cm ponding depth because of difficulty of land leveling and frequency of farmer's field visit. The results of this study will be applied in the paddy farming and can improve water use efficiency.