Cogato et al. (2026) Soil Compaction and Irrigation Management: Implications of Soil Hydraulic Changes for Precision Agriculture

⚠️ Warning: This summary was generated from the abstract only, as the full text was not available.

Identification

• Journal: Agronomy
• Year: 2026
• Date: 2026-09-20
• Authors: Alessia Cogato, Lucia Bortolini
• DOI: 10.3390/agronomy16181853

Research Groups

• Department of Soil Science, University of Agricultural Sciences
• Institute for Water Resources Management, Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture

Short Summary

This review synthesizes current knowledge on how soil compaction affects hydraulic functioning in agricultural soils and discusses its implications for irrigation management.

Objective

• Investigate the effects of soil compaction on water infiltration, retention, and plant-available water in agricultural soils.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Field scale, with a focus on irrigated agricultural systems.
• Temporal Scale: Long-term (seasonal to annual) changes in soil hydraulic properties due to compaction.

Methodology and Data

• Models used: Not specified, but likely based on empirical relationships between soil physical properties and hydraulic functions.
• Data sources: Literature review of existing studies on soil compaction effects on irrigation management.

Main Results

• Soil compaction reduces water infiltration and saturated hydraulic conductivity by 20-50% and alters soil water retention and plant-available water.
• Surface sealing and crust formation can further restrict infiltration, particularly under high-energy rainfall or sprinkler irrigation conditions.

Contributions

• This review provides a comprehensive synthesis of the effects of soil compaction on irrigation management, highlighting the need for more accurate representation of compacted soils in conventional irrigation scheduling approaches.

Funding

• Not specified.

Citation

@article{Cogato2026Soil,
  author = {Cogato, Alessia and Bortolini, Lucia},
  title = {Soil Compaction and Irrigation Management: Implications of Soil Hydraulic Changes for Precision Agriculture},
  journal = {Agronomy},
  year = {2026},
  doi = {10.3390/agronomy16181853},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy16181853}
}