Saline water irrigation represents the future of agriculture in the arid regions of northwestern China.
Therefore, saline water irrigation experiments for spring maize were performed for 3 years from 2009
to 2011 in arid regions of northwestern China, and the impact of irrigation with saline water at different
concentrations on the water use efficiency and soil salt accumulation was investigated. A SWAP model
was calibrated and verified using field experiment data. The relationships of the salt concentration of the
irrigation water with the yield and water use efficiency of spring maize were simulated using the SWAP
model. Furthermore, the salt transport across the soil layers was quantitatively analyzed. The results
showed the following: (1) irrigation with water containing low concentrations of saline (