What role does drainage play in water conservation?
Drainage can play a role in water conservation in a positive way, while inadequate drainage or lack of drainage can play a negative role in water conservation in a number of ways. Poorly drained soils typically exhibit a water movement pattern whereby water from precipitation and/or irrigation infiltrates a shallow depth of soil. Subsequently, the net movement of water is upward to the atmosphere through either plant water use or evaporation. In poorly drained soils or those with shallow water tables, the predominant process by which water leaves the soil is evaporation – which is water lost for plant water use or back to the local hydrologic cycle. Another consequence of poor drainage and sustained water logging of soil is that plants grown on such soils often exhibit signs or symptoms of oxygen stress, which is often mistaken for drought. That being the case, unknowing irrigators are likely to attempt to resolve the apparent drought by additional irrigation – which leads to inefficie
