Simulation of water balance in a clayey, subsurface drained agricultural field with three-dimensional FLUSH model

SummaryWater flow is a key component in the evaluation of soil erosion and nutrient loads from agricultural fields. Field cultivation is the main non-point pollution source threatening water quality of surface waters in Nordic and many other countries. Few models exist that can describe key hydrological processes in clayey soils, i.e. overland flow, preferential flow in macropores and soil shrinkage and swelling. A new three-dimensional (3-D) distributed numerical model called FLUSH is introduced in this study to simulate these processes. FLUSH describes overland flow with the diffuse wave simplification of the Saint Venant equations and subsurface flow with a dual-permeability approach using the Richards equation in both macropore and matrix pore systems. A method based on the pentadiagonal matrix algorithm solves flow in both macropore and matrix systems directly in a column of cells in the computational grid. Flow between the columns is solved with iteration accelerated with OpenMP parallelisation. The model validity is tested with data from a 3-D analytical model and a clayey subsurface drained agricultural field in southern Finland. According to the simulation results, over 99% of the drainflow originated from the macropore system and drainflow started in some cases within the same hour when precipitation started indicating preferential flow in the profile. The moisture content of the clay soil had a profound effect on runoff distribution between surface runoff and drainflow. In summer, when the soil was dry and cracked, drainflow dominated the total runoff, while in autumn, when the shrinkage crack network had swollen shut, surface runoff fraction clearly increased. Observed differences in surface runoff fraction before and after tillage indicated that the operation decreased hydraulic conductivity of the profile.

► FLUSH is a field-scale numerical model for clayey, subsurface drained agricultural fields.
► The model is comprised of 2-D overland and 3-D dual-permeability subsurface flow parts.
► The parallelised algorithm can solve flow in two pore systems directly in a column of cells.
► A 3-D model is an important tool when simulating undulating, clayey fields.
► Results indicate a drop in the conductivity of the profile due to tillage in autumn.