Soil water permeability measurement for irrigation scheduling on Tenggeli Desert in China

In the and and semi-arid areas where soil water holding capacity is small, research in the soil water characteristics such as the hydraulic conductivity, diffusivity and water retention is important for the proper irrigation scheduling to provide the sustainable and steady crop production. In this research, the permeability of the soil in Tenggeli desert was measured, and a numerical study of the infiltration process was conducted. The available moisture was 10.3% for the original desert sand. But it was proved that available moisture increased up to 27.5% in an irrigated field because of cultivation with the water supply from the Yellow river. The unsaturated hydraulic conductivity in drying process ranged from I V to 10(-6) cm/s for the sand soil and 10(-5) to 10(-8)cm/s for the top layer soil. On the other hand, that in welling process ranged from 10(-5) to 10(-7) cm/s for the sand soil and 10(-6) to 10(-7) cm/s for the top layer soil. These data will contribute to sustainable development of agriculture at the middle reaches of the Yellow River basin.