Hydrologic response of artificially drained agricultural watersheds
Insights from high-resolution integrated surface/subsurface simulations
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 15547247 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Saubhagya Singh Rathore (0000-0003-0469-2959, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, corresponding author), Brandon P Sloan (0000-0003-1630-4271, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, corresponding author), Brandon Sloan, Scott Painter (0000-0002-0901-6987, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 20 |
| Issue | 9 |
| Pages | 094023-094023 |
| Publication date | 2025-07-21 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Environmental Research Letters (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1748-9326 • E-ISSN: 1748-9326 |
| Publisher | IOP Publishing (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1088/1748-9326/adf240 |
| OpenAlex | W4412534262 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 54 |
Artificial drainage systems comprising subsurface networks of perforated pipes (tile drains) and engineered surface ditches are widely used to remove excess water from poorly drained agricultural regions. Artificial drainage lowers the water table by design but also has inadvertent effects on the watershed-scale hydrologic response with important implications for flood risk and nutrient exports. We investigated the effects of tile drains on watershed-scale hydrologic response in the Portage River, OH, Watershed using a high-resolution physically based integrated surface/subsurface hydrology model with recently developed capabilities to represent artificial drainage. Tile drains were found to enhance streamflow during times of low flow, generally consistent with previous studies. Streamflow flashiness was found to have a non-monotonic dependence on tile spacing with a minimum at intermediate spacings (∼50 m). Flashiness and the event hydrographs for small tile spacing were similar to the situation with no tiles, but flow paths from farm to stream were very different for those two end member cases, emphasizing the limitations of the stream hydrograph in characterizing hydrologic response. For typical tile spacings, peak flow can either be enhanced or attenuated by the presence of tiles, depending on the size of the event and the antecedent meteorological conditions. Tiles enhance peak flow when the event is below a threshold of ∼25 mm or when events arrive in dry conditions. Peak flow is reduced by tiles when events are large and arrive in conditions that are not overly dry. The dependence on event size and antecedent conditions is explained by differences in available storage and flow paths to the streams. These results provide additional insights into how tile drainage modulates event-scale hydrologic response, an important control on flood generation mechanisms and nutrient exports
Agriculture · Climatology · Geography · Geotechnical engineering · Groundwater · High resolution · Hydrological modelling · Hydrology (agriculture · Remote sensing · Subsurface flow · Surface water · Environmental Science · Hydrology and Watershed Management Studies · Soil and Water Nutrient Dynamics · Soil erosion and sediment transport · Environmental Engineering · Geology
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |