ИСТИНА

In constructal design (Bejan and Lorente, 2013) one (Nature or engineer) optimizes an integral quantity (in our case, the pore water storage) of a dynamic system (saturated-unsaturated flow obeying the Darcy law) by controlling a set of variables (e.g. the shape of a water-harvesting entity and hydraulic properties of the components of the main (top) soil or porous liner, which impedes percolation, as well as the capillary rise of water-soluble salts into the topsoil). Our “constructal” approach is based on the design of a system of capillary barriers that retain irrigation water in topsoil and protect it from secondary salinization. Capillary barriers can be 1,2, and 3-D architectures, depending on the directions of capillarity blocking, vegetation placement (solid cover, local plantings) and types of irrigation (e.g. sprinkling, flooding, furrow irrigation, jet, or drip) (Al-Maktoumi et al., 2014, Smagin, 2012, Smagin et al., 2005, 2015, 2021). Barriers’ physical parameters, including doses and optimal depth of application of soil conditioners, options for application to the soil (in a separate layer or mixing), methods and modes of irrigation of individual crops, are determined using technological design, involving modern computer models of energy and mass transfer in the system “soil-plant-atmosphere”, such as HYDRUS-1D or HYDRUS-2/3D (Šimunek et al., 2006). An example of such modeling is presented for a tilted turf layer which confines a conical zone similar to one studied analytically (Kacimov, 2008) as a water-harvesting entity. Complex field testing of “constructozems” (smartly designed and constructed soil composites) with capillary barriers in experiments with lawn, woody vegetation and vegetable crops with soil and environmental monitoring of their functionality (weather conditions, accounting for precipitation, evaporation, irrigation, unproductive groundwater runoff, temperature, water-air, salt regimes and biological activity (respiration) of soil, biomass, etc.). plant yields) confirmed the high efficiency of innovative technological developments. They increase productivity from 30-50% (vegetable crops) to 50-100% or more (lawn grasses, tree crops) with 100% survival rate of plantings, 1.3-2 fold saving of irrigation moisture and reliable protection of the root layer from secondary salinization, and in the case of innovative gel-forming soil conditioners with biocides, additional protection from pathogenic diseases, including late blight.