The method uses seasonal water balance components as input data. These are related to the surface hydrology (like rainfall, potential evaporation, irrigation, use of drain and well water for irrigation, runoff), and the aquifer hydrology (e.g., pumping from wells). The other water balance components (like actual evaporation, downward percolation, upward capillary rise, subsurface drainage, groundwater flow) are given as output.
The quantity of drainage water, as output, is determined by two drainage intensity factors for drainage above and below drain level respectively (to be given with the input data) and the height of the water table above the given drain level. This height results from the computed water balance Further, a drainage reduction factor can be applied to simulate a limited operation of the drainage system. Variation of the drainage intensity factors and the drainage reduction factor gives the opportunity to simulate the effect of different drainage options.
To obtain accuracy in the computations of the ground water flow (sect. 2.8), the actual evaporation and the capillary rise, the computer calculations are done on a daily basis. For this purpose, the seasonal hydrological data are divided by the number of days per season to obtain daily values. The daily values are added to yield seasonal values.