Soil-Plant-Atmosphere-Water (SPAW) model has been used to provide dyna
mic soil water estimates under irrigated maize at Delhi for six years,
1985 to 1991, excepting 1987. Simulated soil moisture values are comp
ared with gravimetrically observed data for three layers, viz., 0-2.5
cm, 2.5-30 cm and 30-60 cm. Simulated runs mimic the observed fluctuat
ions and trend in moisture content of different layers of soil profile
. Deeper soil layers exhibit better agreement between simulated and me
asured soil moisture content compared to skin layer of profile. Output
from six runs were used to make comparisons at 40 points for each lay
er. Correlations with standard errors (cm) for first three layers are
0.59 (0.3), 0.62 (1.3) and 0.62 (1.1), respectively. For underlining t
he utility for model for irrigation Scheduling in real time. observed
and simulated values (integrated up to 60 cm depth) were pooled for si
x years. High correlation coefficient (0.89) was observed with SE 1.0
cm. The results established the usefulness of model in irrigation sche
duling for maize crop by predicting moisture content.