Chen et al. (2026) Simulation of soil water and nitrogen transport under drip fertigation using a dynamic infiltration boundary in HYDRUS

Identification

• Journal: Journal of Hydrology
• Year: 2026
• Date: 2026-07-23
• Authors: Rui Chen, Peng Li, Weibin Zhang, Haitao Wang, Hui Wu, Xinjie Xu, L Zhang, Jian Wang
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jhydrol.2026.136089

Research Groups

• Research Center of Fluid Machinery Engineering and Technology, Jiangsu University
• Institute of Farmland Irrigation, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences
• Key Laboratory of Water-Saving Agriculture of Henan Province
• Key Laboratory of Fluid and Power Machinery, Ministry of Education, Xihua University
• Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development in Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences

Short Summary

This study developed a novel numerical approach to simulate soil water and nitrogen transport under drip fertigation by integrating a dynamic surface ponding radius model and parameterizing time-varying infiltration boundaries in HYDRUS-2D. The results demonstrated that the variable infiltration boundary method significantly improved the prediction of soil water content.

Objective

• Investigate the effect of dynamically parameterized infiltration boundaries on simulating soil water and nitrogen transport under drip fertigation conditions.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Field scale, with a focus on soil water and nitrogen transport in the root zone.
• Temporal Scale: Short-term (irrigation duration) to long-term (soil water dynamics).

Methodology and Data

• Models used: HYDRUS-2D with a dynamic surface ponding radius model.
• Data sources: Field experiment data from a soil tank experiment with a silt loam soil.

Main Results

• The variable infiltration boundary method significantly improved the prediction of soil water content, achieving high goodness-of-fit (NSE > 0.85, IA > 0.96, rP > 0.96) and low errors (MRE < 0.17, NRMSE < 0.15, PBIAS < 0.13).
• The optimal final infiltration boundary length was identified to be 5–10 cm larger than the maximum observed horizontal wetting front during irrigation.

Contributions

• This study provides a novel approach for simulating soil water and nitrogen transport under drip fertigation conditions by integrating a dynamic surface ponding radius model and parameterizing time-varying infiltration boundaries in HYDRUS-2D.
• The results highlight the importance of dynamically parameterized infiltration boundaries for improving simulation accuracy.

Funding

• This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 52109214) and the Jiangsu University Research Fund (Grant No. 20X100000001).

Citation

@article{Chen2026Simulation,
  author = {Chen, Rui and Li, Peng and Zhang, Weibin and Wang, Haitao and Wu, Hui and Xu, Xinjie and Zhang, L and Wang, Jian},
  title = {Simulation of soil water and nitrogen transport under drip fertigation using a dynamic infiltration boundary in HYDRUS},
  journal = {Journal of Hydrology},
  year = {2026},
  doi = {10.1016/j.jhydrol.2026.136089},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2026.136089}
}