Performance of controlled drainage in tile-drained agricultural fields: An exploratory scenario analysis with the soil-plant model SWAP

Rodríguez-Lache, Erika; Blanchy, Guillaume; Mehmandoostkotlar, Ali; Garré, Sarah

doi:10.1016/j.agwat.2025.109973

Article (Scientific journals)

Performance of controlled drainage in tile-drained agricultural fields: An exploratory scenario analysis with the soil-plant model SWAP

Rodríguez-Lache, Erika; Blanchy, Guillaume; Mehmandoostkotlar, Ali et al.

2025 • In Agricultural Water Management, 322, p. 109973

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https://hdl.handle.net/2268/349482

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10.1016/j.agwat.2025.109973

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Keywords :

Climate change adaptation; Climate-adaptive drainage; Controlled drainage; Drainage management; Subsurface drains; SWAP; Water management; Controlled-drainage; Drainage systems; Ground water recharge; Oxygen stress; Waters managements; Agronomy and Crop Science; Water Science and Technology; Soil Science; Earth-Surface Processes

Abstract :

[en] Regular drainage (RD) systems ensure optimal crop growth by preventing oxygen stress and lead to a significant loss of fresh water, a valuable resource that could be used to sustain crops during summer months. Controlled drainage (CD) systems can raise the water table above the subsurface drains using a control pit. However, it remains unclear to which extent CD contributes to better crop yield and more groundwater recharge. While manual controlled drainage (MCD) is managed by hand, climate-adaptive drainage (CAD) offers the possibility to continually adjust the water table based on weather forecast and crop needs. In this work, we conducted an in silico experiment using the SWAP model to investigate the interactions between drainage types (RD and MCD) over a 30-year timeframe, 3 soil textures and different drainage management practices in maize cultivation. MCD leads to an increase in groundwater recharge (between 28 % and 45 %) and it reduces the drainage flux (between 25 % and 17 %) compared to RD. MCD increases maize transpiration mostly in loamy sand soils (+ 0.5 % median). In other soils, transpiration is reduced due to oxygen stress. CAD for the 30-year data did not result in large improvements in crop transpiration and resulted in less groundwater recharge and more drainage than MCD. Although both MCD and CAD offer only minimal improvement of crop transpiration and is highly dependent on soil type, weather conditions and drainage management, they do result in enhanced groundwater recharge, which is crucial for maintaining water availability and supporting ecological systems.

Disciplines :

Physical, chemical, mathematical & earth Sciences: Multidisciplinary, general & others

Author, co-author :

Rodríguez-Lache, Erika ; Flanders Research Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (ILVO), Merelbeke, Belgium

Blanchy, Guillaume ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département ArGEnCo > Géophysique appliquée ; F.R.S-FNRS (Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique), Brussels, Belgium

Mehmandoostkotlar, Ali ; Flanders Research Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (ILVO), Merelbeke, Belgium

Garré, Sarah ; Flanders Research Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (ILVO), Merelbeke, Belgium

Language :

English

Title :

Performance of controlled drainage in tile-drained agricultural fields: An exploratory scenario analysis with the soil-plant model SWAP

Publication date :

20 December 2025

Journal title :

Agricultural Water Management

ISSN :

0378-3774

eISSN :

1873-2283

Publisher :

Elsevier B.V.

Volume :

322

Pages :

109973

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Additional URL :

https://api.elsevier.com/content/article/PII:S0378377425006870?httpAccept=text/xml

Funders :

Fonds de la Recherche Scientific
Vlaamse regering
Flanders Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Funding text :

The research was funded by the Flemish Government through the OP-PEIL project ( VLAIO HBC.2020.3159 ). Guillaume Blanchy is a Research Fellow of the Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique \u2013 FNRS ( CR: 1.B.044.22F ).

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