The use of hydrogeophysical methods provides insights for supporting optimal irrigation design and management. In the present study, the electrical resistivity imaging (ERI) was applied for monitoring the soil water motion patterns resulting from the adoption of water deficit scenarios in a micro-irrigated orange orchard (Eastern Sicily, Italy). The relationship of ERI with independent ancillary data of soil water content (SWC), plant transpiration (T) and in situ measurements of hydraulic conductivity at saturation (K_s, i.e., using the falling head method, FH) was evaluated. The soil water motion patterns and the maximum wet depths in the soil profile identified by ERI were quite dependent on SWC (R² = 0.79 and 0.82, respectively). Moreover, ERI was able to detect T in the severe deficit irrigation treatment (electrical resistivity increases of about 20%), whereas this phenomenon was masked at higher SWC conditions. K_s rates derived from ERI and FH approaches revealed different patterns and magnitudes among the irrigation treatments, as consequence of their different measurement scales and the methodological specificity. Finally, ERI has been proved suitable for identifying the soil wetting/drying patterns and the geometrical characteristics of wet bulbs, which represent some of the most influential variables for the optimal design and management of micro-irrigation systems.

水文地球物理方法的使用为支持最佳灌溉设计和管理提供了见识。在本研究中，电阻率成像（ERI）用于监测由于微灌橙园（意大利西西里岛，意大利）缺水而导致的土壤水分运动模式。评估了ERI与土壤水含量（SWC），植物蒸腾（T）和饱和状态下水力传导率的独立辅助数据（K _s，即使用落头法FH）的关系。ERI确定的土壤水分运动模式和土壤剖面中的最大湿深完全取决于SWC（R ² 分别为0.79和0.82）。此外，ERI能够在严重的缺水灌溉处理中检测到T（电阻率增加约20％），而这种现象在较高的SWC条件下被掩盖了。来自ERI和FH方法的K _s速率显示出不同的灌溉处理方式和幅度，这是由于它们的测量规模和方法学特异性不同的结果。最后，已证明ERI适用于识别土壤的润湿/干燥模式和湿球的几何特征，这些特征代表了对微灌溉系统的最佳设计和管理最有影响力的变量。