IRRIGATION AND DRAINAGE Irrig. and Drain. 54: 103–113 (2005) Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI: 10.1002/ird.158 WATER PRODUCTIVITYAND CROP PRODUCTION SIMULATION UNDER SURGE FLOW IRRIGATION IN SHORT FURROWS IN EGYPT 1 SALEH M. ISMAIL 1 AND HERMAN DEPEWEG 2 * 1 Soil and Water Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt 2 Department of Water Engineering, UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, Delft, The Netherlands ABSTRACT This paper describes the simulation results of water productivity and yield production in relation to water supply by either continuous or surge flow irrigation in short fields for clay and sandy soils in Egypt. The input data required by the Cropwat model are meteorological data, plant and soil characteristics and water supply. The meteorological data for the year 1999 were obtained from the Assiut Station, Egypt. Cotton was used as the most important crop for the simulation and its growing characteristics come from the Cropwat model. Soil characteristics and water supply are measured data obtained from field experiments in Assiut. During the simulation all the parameters considered have been kept constant except for the water supply and application efficiency, which are variable. The yield has been determined with Cropwat at the beginning, middle and the end of a furrow as well as for the average stored water depth along the whole furrow. The simulation has been carried out for two different approaches; one based on optimal continuous flow and the other based on optimal surge flow irrigation. The simulation indicates that using an optimal surge flow gives higher crop yields than using an optimal continuous flow. For optimal surge flow irrigation the simulation revealed distinct differences in yield reduction between continuous and surge flow irrigation compared to the results based on optimal continuous flow. Surge flow irrigation is an efficient tool either to produce the same yield with less water than in continuous flow or to produce higher yields than continuous flow by using the same gross irrigation supply. Surge flow irrigation is an effective tool for water saving in short fields as prevails in Egypt. Copyright # 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. key words: cropwat; simulation; furrows; short field conditions; crop yields RE ´ SUME ´ Cet article de ´crit les re ´sultats des simulations effectue ´es en vue d’optimiser la rentabilite ´ de l’eau et la re ´colte agricole en fonction du type d’amene ´e d’eau, continue ou par vagues pour les parcelles de dimensions re ´duites et de sols argileux ou sablonneux. Les entre ´es ne ´cessaires au mode `le Cropwat sont les mesures me ´te ´orologiques, les caracte ´ristiques des plantes et du sol et l’amene ´e d’eau. Les donne ´es me ´te ´orologiques pour l’anne ´e 1999 sont obtenues de la station d’Assiut, E ´ gypte. Le coton a e ´te ´ employe ´ comme e ´tant la culture la plus importante pour la simulation et les caracte ´ristiques de son de ´veloppement sont obtenues a ` partir du model Cropwat. Les caracte ´ristiques du sol et l’amene ´e d’eau sont des donne ´es mesure ´es obtenues a ` partir d’expe ´riences sur site a ` Assiut. Durant la simulation tous les parame `tres conside ´re ´s sont garde ´s constants sauf l’amene ´e d’eau et l’efficience de l’application qui sont variables. La re ´colte agricole est de ´termine ´ par Cropwat au de ´but, au milieu et a ` la fin de la rigole aussi bien que pour l’amene ´e d’eau moyenne le long de la rigole. La simulation a e ´te ´ effectue ´e pour deux diffe ´rentes approches; l’une est base ´e sur l’e ´coulement continu optimal et l’autre sur l’irrigation optimale par vagues. Received 3 March 2004 Revised 18 November 2004 Copyright # 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Accepted 18 November 2004 *Correspondence to: Herman Depeweg, Department of Water Engineering, UNESCO-IHE, Institute for Water Education, PO Box 3015 2601DA Delft, The Netherlands. E-mail: h.depeweg@unesco-ihe.org 1 Simulation de la rentabilite ´ de l’eau et de la re ´colte agricole dans le cas de l’irrigation gravitaire par vague et de parcelles de dimensions re ´duites: en E ´ gypte.