Wind Drift and Evaporation Losses from Sprinkler Irrigation in a Semi-Arid Climate

Wind drift and evaporation losses (WDEL) are a major source of water loss in sprinkler irrigation systems. Therefore, WDEL plays an important role in improving the water application efficiency in sprinkler irrigation. In this chapter, multivariate regression analysis was applied to simulate WDEL by collecting data from a field with a sprinkler under semi-arid climate conditions. Input variables of nozzle diameters, air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, vapor pressure deficit, solar radiation, and pan evaporation were applied to simulate WDEL. The model performance indices viz. mean squared errors (MSE), Mallows’ statistic (Cp), and determination coefficient (R2) were applied to evaluate the accuracy of the models. Results showed WDEL ranged from 23.1% to 35.8% and averaged 29.0%; and MSE, Cp, and R2 were 0.90, 1.5, and 0.99, respectively. It can be concluded that the multiple regression analysis is an appropriate method to simulate WDEL from a sprinkler. © 2024 selection and editorial matter, Saeid Eslamian, Mir Bintul Huda, Nasir Ahmad Rather, and Faezeh Eslamian; individual chapters, the contributors.