Hooghoudt's Equation

Application for Drainage

Dr. M. Anwar Baig
2nd April 2013

The objectives of agricultural drainage systems

are to:
- reclaim and conserve land for agriculture,
- to increase crop yields,
- to permit the cultivation of more valuable crops,
- to allow the cultivation of more than one crop a
year,
- and/or to reduce the costs of crop production in
otherwise waterlogged land.
Other benefits:
- A reduction in the average amount of water
stored on or in the soil, inducing drier soil
conditions and reducing water logging;
- A discharge of water through the system.
- The direct effects trigger a series of indirect
effects. These are determined by climate, soil,

Hooghoudt's equation can be written as:.[3]

Q L2 = 8 Kb d (Di - Dd) (Dd - Dw) + 4 Ka (Dd - Dw) 2 where:
Q = steady state drainage discharge rate (m/day)
Ka = hydraulic conductivity of the soil above drain level (m/day)
Kb = hydraulic conductivity of the soil below drain level (m/day)
Di = depth of the impermeable layer below drain level (m)
Dd = depth of the drains (m)
Dw = steady state depth of the watertable midway between the
drains (m)
L = spacing between the drains (m)
d = equivalent depth, a function of L, (Di-Dd), and r
r = drain radius (m)

The equivalent depth De depends on the

depth D of the impermeable layer below the
drains as follows:
If D<R: De = D (2a)
If R<D<L/4: De = D.L/{(L-D2)+8D.L.ln(D/R)}
(2b)
If D>L/4: De = L/8ln(L/R) (2c)
where R is the drain radius (m). For
L/8<D<L/2, Equations 2b and 2c give almost
the same result.

 Equivalent depth
In 1991 a closed-form expression was
developed for the equivalent depth
(d) that can replace the Hooghoudt
tables [6]:
d = L / 8 { ln(L/r) + F(x) } where:
x = 2 (Di Dd) / L
F(x) = 4e2nx / n (1 e2nx) , with n
= 1, 3, 5, . .

Hooghoudt's drainage equation (Hooghoudt 1940) gives a

mathematical relation of the
parameters involved in the subsurface drainage of flat land by a
system of horizontal and
parallel ditches or pipe drains without entrance resistance, placed at
equal depth and subject to a steady recharge evenly distributed over
the area (Figure 1).

The most widely known form of Hooghoudt's equation

was presented by Wesseling (1972). In a slightly
modified form, it reads:

qL = (8Hm/L)(Kb.De+Ka.Ha)
(1)
Where:
q is the steady recharge of water percolating to the
water table equal to the drain discharge (m/day or
m/hr),
L is the drain spacing (m),
Hm is the height of the water table midway between
drains, taken with respect to the centre of the drain
(m),
Kb is the hydraulic conductivity of the soil below drain
level (m/day or m/hr),
Ka is the hydraulic conductivity of the soil above drain
level (m/day or m/hr),
Ha = Hm/2 is the average height of the water table
above drain level

Drainage of Sloping Land

DRAINAGE OF SLOPING LAND WITH

ENTRANCE RESISTANCE
- D is the depth of an impermeable layer below the drain centre (m);
- G is the depth of the drain centre below the soil surface (m);
- Ho is the entrance head, equal to the height of the water table just above the
drain, measured from the centre of the drain (m);
- Hu is the height of the water table at the water divide between drains,
measured in upslope direction from the centre of a drain (m);
- Hu'= Hu-Ho (Hu reduced with entrance head);
- Hd is the height of the water table at the water divide between drains,
measured in down slope direction from the centre of the drain (m);
- Hd'= Hd-Ho (Hd reduced with entrance head);
- H* is the height of the water table midway between drains, measured from
the centre of the nearest down slope drain (m);
- Hgr is the height of the water table midway between drains, measured from
the sloping line through the centres of the drains (m);
- I is the depth of the water table below the soil surface midway between
drains (m);
- L is the drain spacing (m);
- M=L/2 (half the drain spacing);
- S is the slope of the land (m/m);
- Zu is the distance to the water divide between drains, measured in upslope
direction from a drain (m);
- Zd is the distance to the water divide between drains, measured in down

Corrugated Pipes

Holes in pipes

Aggregates Gravel Pack

(uniform)

Geonet is a material made of HDPE that is

designed to transmit both gasses & liquids (left)
Geocomposites were originally designed to replace
a sand or gravel drainage (right)

Laying of drainage pipes in

field

Drain outlet

History of Drainage in Pakistan

In Pakistan, development of the Indus Basin
Irrigation System, which serves about 16.67
Mha and distributes about 172 BCM of high
quality (about 200 ppm TDS) river water per
annum,
It has caused water logging and salinization by
disturbing the hydrologic equilibrium between
recharge and discharge of groundwater.
Presently about 30 per cent of the irrigated area
(16.67 Mha) is waterlogged with water table
within 3 m depth from the ground surface.
About 27 per cent of the irrigated area is
moderately to severely salinized.
Since the 1960s the Government of Pakistan
through WAPDA has been launching several

Mechanism of
Waterlogging in Pakistan
Previously there were inundation canals and water
equilibrium was maintained
As soon as water was brought from the rivers by the
large new irrigation systems, the dynamic equilibrium
between groundwater recharge and discharge was
disturbed.
The deep percolation of seepage from canals and
watercourses and from water applied to the lands for
irrigation formed a new increment of recharge which,
added to the normal recharge from the rivers and
precipitation, was greater than the rate at which water
could be discharged from the aquifer.
As a result, water tables started rising when the barrage
controlled irrigation systems were placed in operation.

 As the water table continued to rise, more

and more lands became adversely affected.
The upward movement and evaporation of
water from the water table resulted in a
steadily increasing accumulation of salts
from the soils and from the irrigation water
in the root zones of crops.
In those areas, particularly in the Punjab,
where application of irrigation water was
insufficient to leach down salts, an
environment was created which accelerated
the salinization of lands as the water table
approached the land surface.
Essentially all of the water applied was
transpired by the crops leaving very little

 The canal and watercourse seepage

continued and maintained the water table at
dangerously high levels, even though the
inadequate filed applications contributed
little to the rise.
Occasionally monsoon rains and overland
floods provided sufficient excess water to
leach some of the accumulated salts
downward but, with water logging, effective
drainage was prevented.
While salinity was not a major problem when
water tables were low, it was an immediate
consequence of water logging of the lands
Because of the flat nature of the Indus
Plains, natural subsurface drainage through
down valley movement of groundwater was
restricted.

Efforts made to Eradicate

Waterlogging and Salinity Pakistan
Few efforts were made to control water
logging and salinity until the late 1950s;
Planned efforts started with the creation of
WAPDA in the early 1960s.
The SCARP program was started to provide
drainage in areas with high water tables to
combat water logging and salinity.
Since then, a large number of drainage
projects have been constructed, using
tubewells, surface drains or tile drainage
individually or in combination according to
circumstances.

Table: Completed drainage projects, till June 2000

Province

No. of

Area

No. of

Surface

projects

served

tubewell

drains

(million

(km)

Tile drains

ha)
Punjab
Sindh
KPK
Baluchis

30
18
8
2

4.074
2.148
0.244
0.072

10 050
4 555
491
-

3243
7 178
773
322

2 763
976
5781
-

53 360
13 600
43 440
-

58

6.538

15 096

11 525

9 520

110 400

tan
Totals

What kind of resources one can

have: Physical, material and ..