Meandering furrow (MF) irrigation is a modified form of furrow irrigation, which has being used in Iran, but to date, there are no studies on modeling of MF irrigation and field performance of MF fertigation. Research was conducted to examine the effects of field slope on the hydraulic parameters, distribution uniformities and application efficiency of water and fertilizer in meandering furrow irrigation. Results indicated that application efficiency and advance time in MF irrigation were significantly more than standard furrow (SF) irrigation. The average tail water runoff loss and consequently mass of fertilizer loss in MF were significantly less than SF. In addition, a furrow irrigation model was developed based on the Slow-change/slow-flow routing equation. The equation was solved numerically using explicit Euler and implicit Crank-Nicolson schemes. The model simulations of advance and recession trajectories and runoff were verified for different field conditions using filed data. The model prediction of meandering furrow irrigation phases were in good agreement using field data. In general, the use of MF in sloping fields is recommended as a good management option for both irrigation and fertigation. Also, the proposed model can provide a suitable numerical simulation tool for design and evaluation of MF and SF irrigation for all slopes and boundary conditions. Keywords : Meandering furrow irrigation, fertigation, slow-change/slow flow routing equation, numerical model, infiltration.
