Evaluation of SALTMED model performance in irrigation and drainage of sugarcane farms in Khuzestan province of Iran

Author: M. Golabi ^*, A. A. Naseri and H. A. Kashkuli

Received 12 January 2009, accepted 19 April 2009.

Abstract

Irrigation management in semi-arid area needs a tool to predict soil salinity changes due to irrigation water quality. In the first sight, SALTMED model can be used in such conditions. However, it is necessary to verify such model using actual data. In this paper by using crop logging data, irrigation reports and climatology data, salinity profile after irrigation and production of sugarcane were used to verify SALTMED model for south west of Iran. The period of this investigation was three years, of which two years data has been used for calibration and the rest was used to verification of the model. To help verification, samples from 0-30, 30-60 and 60-90 cm depth from the soil surface were collected and ECe was measured to compare between simulation data and measurement data. To compare simulation results with actual results, maximum error, root mean square error, coefficient of determination, modeling efficiency, coefficient of residual mass and ANOVA table were calculated. Generally, the results indicated that between simulation and measurement data there was not significant difference. Furthermore, for evaluation degree of assuredness output of model, Student t-test was used. The results of this test indicated that the significance level was 95% for yield production model. The overall results of this research confirmed that SALTMED model could be used successfully as tool for irrigation and drainage of sugarcane farms in Khuzestan province of Iran.

Key words: Model, SALTMED, salinity profile, sugarcane, drainage.