University of Jordan
Faculty of Agriculture
Dept. of Land, Water & Environment
Office: 120 Agric
Course aim and objectives:
This course is concerned with planning and the design
Agricultural Drainage (604313)
Prerequisites: 604102
Instructor: Dr. Mohammad Duqqah
Office hours: 10:30-11:30 Sun, Tue & Thu
of agricultural land drainage systems and how they are
influenced by soil properties, crop type and irrigation water quality. The overall aim of the course is to provide the
student with a solid background in and understanding of the causes, nature, and harmful effects of excess water in
agricultural land, as well as of the remedial to be taken. The specific objectives of the course are:
1-
To enable the students to develop mathematical and quantitative skills needed to solve applied problems in
agricultural land drainage.
2-
To provide the students with what is physically going on in the soil and on land during different stages of the
various drainage processes.
3-
To enable the students to appreciate the many factors and interrelationships to be taken into account in the
diagnosis and solution of problems.
4-
To enable the students to be aware of the up-to-date research areas in land drainage worldwide and relate them
to Jordan agriculture and environment.
Learning outcomes:
A) Knowledge and Understanding
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Universal relationships between the main design variables and soil, climatological and other relevant
environmental conditions.
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Up-to-date factual information on the important technological aspects of drainage such as drainage
systems construction and maintenance.
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The different processes of land drainage of excess water and salinity control for soil sustainability.
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The reliability and limitations of existing theories and formulae in agricultural land drainage systems.
B) Intellectual Skills
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Implementation of different approaches for solving mathematical problems related to agricultural land
drainage.
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Analysis of fate and transport of mass in relation to soil physical properties, management practices and
environmental factors.
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Realization of the importance and topics of scientific research in the different aspects of land drainage.
C) Subject Specific Skills
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Implementation of mathematical and physical background in land drainage when dealing with excess
water and high salinity problems.
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Implementation of computer skills when dealing with land drainage.
D) Transferable Skills
- Adoption of scientific approach for managing land drainage in relation to plant growth and environment.
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Ability to understand and analyze different situations related to land drainage.
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Teaching Methods:
1) Duration: 17 weeks including exams.
2) Lectures: 34 lectures, 2 lectures per week.
3) Homework: suggested problems at the end of each chapter, training exercises for mathematical proofs
and derivation of equations.
4) Quizzes: unannounced short quizzes should be expected each week.
Tests and Evaluation:
Midterm exam, Sunday November
12, 2006
Drop quizzes and assignments
Final hour exam
30%
20%
50%
Course Outline
1.
Water in the soil: hydrological cycles, forms and nature of occurrence of water in the soil, pressures in the soil
water, soil moisture characteristics, unsaturated and groundwater flow (2 weeks).
2. Land drainage for agriculture-an introduction: drainage problems, sources of excess water, drainage systems,
drainage and farming, drainage requirements (1 week)
3. Groundwater drainage systems: pipe drain systems, ditch systems, ditch systems, construction of pipe drain
systems, maintenance of pipe drain systems (2 weeks).
4. Shallow drainage systems: bedding systems, shallow ditch systems, mole drainage systems, pipe drainage systems,
complementary measures (2 weeks).
5. Main drainage systems: the general case, polders, organizational and operational aspects (2 weeks).
6. Outlines of principles and practices: field investigations, stages of project preparation, planning and design, basic
design criteria, design rainfall, design field drainage systems, determination of design criteria (1 week).
7. Design of pipe drainage systems for groundwater control: drain spacing formulae, flow patterns, Hooghoudt
formula, non-steady state drainage formulae, basic design criteria, field drainage base depth, determination of the
required diameter of a pipe drain, checking of pipe systems (2 weeks).
8. Salty soils: forms of occurrence and distribution of salts in the soil, salinity problems, classification and mapping of
salty soils (2 week)
9. Salinisation due to irrigation: salinisation by irrigation, salinisation by groundwater, sodification, salt balance of
irrigated land, irrigation water quality (2 week).
10. Drainage of irrigated land: pipe drainage system, well drainage, main drainage (1 week).
Textbook:
Smedema, L.K., and Rycroft, D.W. 1988. Land Drainage: planning and design of agricultural drainage systems. B T
Batsford Ltd, London.
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