The purpose of study is the development of methodology for calculating the average soil moisture content in the inside contour soil space moistened during drip irrigation. When calculating the irrigation rates of drip irrigation of farmland, which ensure the formation in soil space special local humidification contours according to geometric parameters and humidity level, it is necessary to determine the average humidity level in the inside contour space. Existing proposals in this part of the parameters and drip irrigation regimes development are oriented mainly at direct measuring, and the calculations themselves are carried out by different and insufficiently substantiated methods, which determine the objective relevance. The proposed methodical approach for determining an average-weighted soil moisture in the inside contour space provides the approximation of the drip soil moistening local contour and the inside contour isopleths position with a certain moisture level, a quantitative assessment of the volumes of the inter-isopleths space with corresponding humidity, the calculation of moisture-volume parameters of the selected moistening zones and the determination of the average weighted moisture content within drip soil moistening local contour. The proposed method for calculating the average soil moisture content within the contours on the approximate isopleth profiles and their actual position makes it possible to obtain a high reproducibility with actual measurements and known methods at minimum labour and time costs.
Key words: drip irrigation, average-weighted soil moisture, inside-contour space, humidification contour, soil characteristics.
