Improving Soil Water Simulation in Semi-Arid Agriculture: A Comparative Evaluation of Water Retention Curves and Inverse Modeling Using HYDRUS-1D Rasoulzadeh, Ali Kohan, Mohammad Reza Amirzadeh, Arash Heydari, Mahsa Mobaser, Javanshir Azizi Raoof, Majid Moghadam, Javad Ramezani Fernández-Gálvez, Jesús soil hydraulic parameters wetting and drying branches dripper method field calibration root zone modeling Water scarcity in semi-arid regions necessitates accurate soil water modeling to opti- mize irrigation management. This study compares three HYDRUS-1D parameterization approaches—based on the drying-branch soil water retention curve (SWRC), wetting- branch SWRC (using Shani’s drip method), and inverse modeling—to simulating soil water content at 15 cm and 45 cm depths under center-pivot irrigation in a semi-arid region. Field experiments in three maize fields provided daily soil water, soil hydraulic, and me- teorological data. Inverse modeling achieved the highest accuracy (NRMSE: 2.29–7.40%; RMSE: 0.006–0.023 cm3 cm−3), particularly at 15 cm depth, by calibrating van Genuchten parameters against observed water content. The wetting-branch approach outperformed the drying branch at the same depth, capturing irrigation-induced wetting processes more effectively. Statistical validation confirmed the robustness of inverse modeling in repro- ducing temporal patterns, while wetting-branch data improved deep-layer accuracy. The results demonstrate that inverse modeling is a reliable approach for soil water simulation and irrigation management, whereas the wetting-branch parameterization offers a practical, field-adaptable alternative. This study provides one of the first side-by-side evaluations of these three modeling approaches under real-world semi-arid conditions. 2025-10-21T10:40:40Z 2025-10-21T10:40:40Z 2025-10-21 journal article Rasoulzadeh, A.; Kohan, M.R.; Amirzadeh, A.; Heydari, M.; Mobaser, J.A.; Raoof, M.; Moghadam, J.R.; Fernández-Gálvez, J. Improving Soil Water Simulation in Semi-Arid Agriculture: A Comparative Evaluation of Water Retention Curves and Inverse Modeling Using HYDRUS-1D. Hydrology 2025, 12, 273. https://hdl.handle.net/10481/107239 https://doi.org/10.3390/ hydrology12100273 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ open access Atribución-NoComercial-CompartirIgual 4.0 Internacional MDPI