Proceedings of the 2020 Mississippi Water Resources Conference

Year: 2020 Authors: D'Alessio M.

The need for alternative sources of water is dramatically increasing. With the increase in population, there exists a challenge to feed the people by producing crops with relatively less arable land and limited water resources. Where irrigation water is needed for crop production, wastewater (human and/or animal) treatment and reuse represents a challenging but viable alternative and may even lead to increased productivity of soils. Over the past few decades, there has been a significant shift in irrigation technology from surface to pressurized irrigation, including surface and subsurface drip irrigation (SDI). Passively injecting air into SDI systems increases crop yields and overcomes root zone wetting issues. The impact of passively injected air into SDI will be discussed in terms of i) plant growth, expressed in terms of weight, size, and development of the roots plant, ii) uptake of pharmaceuticals from human and animal recycled water, and iii) soil microbial activities. Results from greenhouse investigations and preliminary results from a field investigation will be presented.