ABSTRACT
Preventing irrigation-induced erosion takes on a special importance because of the indispensable role irrigated agriculture plays in feeding and clothing humanity. Irrigation is one of humanity's most potent weapons in the war against starvation and one of the best strategies for preserving earth's remaining undisturbed environments while meeting human food and fiber needs. Sparsely populated arid lands developed for irrigation have lower speciation densities, resulting in less social and biological displacement and fewer extinctions than occurs for comparable production through development of rain-fed lands. Irrigation-induced erosion has generally been treated by the unfamiliar as a rudimentary subset of rain-induced erosion systematics. Most of the initial impetus for soil conservation in irrigated agriculture was protection of riparian areas receiving irrigation return flows. Buried drainpipes with vertical inlet risers allow furrow irrigation tailwater to pond at the lower reaches of fields until the water level initiates drainage into the riser.
