Evaluation of the efficiency of irrigation in a zonal soil sequence

A thermodynamic approach to evaluate the efficiency of irrigation is discussed. It is based on the analysis of the structure of the energy budget for open soil systems. The dependences that make it possible to calculate the major energy characteristics necessary for evaluation of the particular components of the matter and energy balance within the atmosphere-vegetation-soil system are suggested. The values of these characteristics are calculated for natural rainfed soils and for irrigated soils of the main soil zones in the European territory of Russia. A coefficient of the energy efficiency of the soil reclamation measures is suggested to evaluate the efficiency of irrigation for the considered soil sequence zone.