The importance and challenge of modeling irrigation-induced erosion

Irrigation-induced erosion and rain-induced erosion result from very different systematics. Therefore, both cannot be predicted effectively using the same models. The average two-fold yield and three-fold economic advantage of irrigation over rain-fed agriculture, coupled with the fragility of irrigated land and the strategic importance of irrigation development to meet world agricultural production needs, has raised the urgency for the development of robust, accurate, and precise irrigation-induced erosion models. This paper details the rationale for separate irrigation-induced erosion models, presents essential aspects unique to irrigation that must be accounted for in the models, and summarizes the progress (to date) toward the goal of irrigation-induced erosion model development.