Seeking clarification on Irrigation Module in CLM5 Simulations

[Chiru]

I am seeking clarification regarding the Irrigation module in CLM5 for my simulations, and I would appreciate your insights on the following questions:

1. Is it necessary to include the River Routing Model (MOSART) to activate Irrigation in CLM5 simulations? Based on my understanding from the literature, irrigation water is removed from river water storage for mass conservation and directly applied to the ground surface by evenly distributing the amount of water. However, I am uncertain if MOSART is a mandatory component for enabling irrigation in CLM5 (I am running regional simulations, so I can't turn on the MOSART).
2. I plan to activate Irrigation by using the command "./xmlchange CLM_BLDNML_OPTS="-irrig on" -append." Will this command successfully enable Irrigation in my simulation, or are there additional steps I need to take?
3. In the context of Satellite Phenology, if I want to investigate the effects of Irrigation on soil moisture, runoff, and evapotranspiration, which surface file should I use? Should I utilize the one with 16 PFTs or 78 PFTs?
4. If I use the 78 PFTs surface file is there any chance of Evapotranspiration increase as compared to when I use the surface which is having 16 PFTs? As per my understanding when we use SP compset, CLM5 will take MODIS LAI but it will have 16 PFTs (correct me if I am wrong)

Any guidance or clarification you can provide on these matters would be greatly appreciated. My aim is to better understand the implications of activating the Irrigation module and its associated considerations for my research.

 

[slevis]

In the model documentation...

Welcome to the CTSM documentation for CLM5.0 (CESM2.1) — ctsm release-clm5.0 documentation

please search for "irrig" for answers to some of your questions. Please try things out and come back with questions if you get stuck.