Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID OK_2024_Datta

Investigating Changes in Consumptive Water Use in Furrow and Subsurface Drip Irrigated Cotton Fields

Institute: Oklahoma
Year Established: 2024 Start Date: 2024-09-01 End Date: 2025-08-31
Total Federal Funds: $24,995 Total Non-Federal Funds: $24,996

Principal Investigators: Sumon Datta

Project Summary: Lugert-Altus Irrigation District (LAID) in southwestern Oklahoma often experiences extreme drought, complicating the release of irrigation water from its reservoir, Lake Lugert-Altus to water about 50,000 acres of cotton. The change in water level due to release of water to the downstream furrow- (FI) and subsurface drip irrigated (SDI) fields is largely dependent on the type of irrigation systems because of their drastic differences in their ability to use water efficiently (FI: 60%, SDI: 90%), causing farmers to adopt for more efficient system – SDI. During this transition, understanding how the crop’s consumptive water use, also known as evapotranspiration (ET), changes between the irrigation system is vital to help guide the transition. The study aims to track and validate ET in these systems from 2016-2024 using a recently released platform OpenET. The results will help decide if switching to SDI is a good way to deal with water shortages.