Site in areas of high volume and intensity river flows where conventional irrigation structures are not feasible (spate systems should probably be promoted in areas where the practice is already in use).
{{procontable | proborder="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" align="center"|-! width="50%" style="background:#efefef;" | Advantages! style="background:#ffdead;" | Disadvantages|-| valign="top" | - Minimum land preparation is needed, so is very cost-effective compared to other infiltration methods <br>
- Most of the sediment load in the river water will settle on the land, e.g. 70% – this can be advantageous for agriculture <br>
- Good for infiltrating runoff water – measurements in Iran showed that 83.5% of the river water was infiltrated<br>
| convalign= "top" | - Large surfaces of land have to be made available for it to work <br>
- River flows in ephemeral rivers can be unpredictable in time and volume, which can lead to unpredictable spread on the land and damage to
structures<br>
- High sediment loads can reduce recharge rates over time. Their deposition also means farmland level gets raised above village, which causes the village to flood. Also riverbanks can breach, as a result.<br>
- Labour intensive work to create embankments for conveying storm water (in Eritrea, banks are between 5-10 metres high)<br>
- Unintentional negative impacts on water downstream when not carefully designed. Especially when the floodwater never reaches the sea – in this case, all water is already allocated in the basin and withdrawal in one place will be more likely to negatively affect another.<br>}|}
==Resilience to changes in the environment==