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Title: Syntheses of the current model applications for managing water and needs for experimental data and model improvements to enhance these applications

Author
item Ahuja, Lajpat
item Ma, Liwang
item Lascano, Robert
item ANAPALLI, S - Colorad0 State University
item FANG, Q - Qingdao Agricultural University
item Nielsen, David
item WANG, ENLI - Csiro European Laboratory
item Colaizzi, Paul

Submitted to: Advances in Agricultural Systems Modeling
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/15/2014
Publication Date: 12/1/2014
Citation: Ahuja, L.R., Ma, L., Lascano, R.J., Anapalli, S., Fang, Q.X., Nielsen, D.C., Wang, E., Colaizzi, P.D. 2014. Syntheses of the current model applications for managing water and needs for experimental data and model improvements to enhance these applications. Advances in Agricultural Systems Modeling. pp. 399-437.

Interpretive Summary: This volume of the Advances in Agricultural Systems Modeling series presents 14 different case studies of model applications to help make the best use of limited water in agriculture. These examples show that models have tremendous potential and value in enhancing site-specific water management for different soils and climates, and evaluating cropping system sustainability over the longer term, when model results are integrated with the available field measurement in experimental studies. In this paper, we summarize applications of eleven system models commonly reported in the literature for agricultural water management along with those presented in this volume. These eleven models vary greatly in simulating agricultural system components as demonstrated in Table 1 for water balance related processes (the differences in crop growth and N balance processes were even greater among models), which need to be kept in mind when reading about the applications of each model. At the end, a sensor-based automated irrigation scheduling system is presented. Finally, we summarize further needs for experimental data and model improvements to enhance future water management applications.

Technical Abstract: This volume of the Advances in Agricultural Systems Modeling series presents 14 different case studies of model applications to help make the best use of limited water in agriculture. These examples show that models have tremendous potential and value in enhancing site-specific water management for different soils and climates, and evaluating cropping system sustainability over the longer term, when model results are integrated with the available field measurement in experimental studies. In this paper, we summarize applications of eleven system models commonly reported in the literature for agricultural water management along with those presented in this volume. These eleven models vary greatly in simulating agricultural system components as demonstrated in Table 1 for water balance related processes (the differences in crop growth and N balance processes were even greater among models), which need to be kept in mind when reading about the applications of each model. At the end, a sensor-based automated irrigation scheduling system is presented. Finally, we summarize further needs for experimental data and model improvements to enhance future water management applications.