Irrigated rice fields modeling and implementation in Hydrotel: application to the Cau River watershed in Vietnam
Water management for the irrigation of rice fields involves complex processes. The Hydrotel model is a tool for simulating hydrological processes at the watershed scale. However, this model does not allow taking into account the particular hydrological behavior of rice fields. The present study aims to develop a sub-model that, integrated into Hydrotel, will take into account the hydrological behavior of rice fields and their irrigation. The Hydrotel model, with and without the sub-model specifically developed for rice fields, was applied to the upstream part of the Cau River watershed in Vietnam. This application has demonstrated that taking into account rice fields and simulating their hydrological functioning, with the developed sub-model, makes it possible to improve the quality of the hydrological simulations on this watershed. Hydrotel thus modified can be used to study the impact of rice fields on the water resources of watersheds where the area of rice fields is large.