Simulation of water balance in a maize field under film-mulching drip irrigation

•Comparing the HYDRUS-2D simulations of film-mulching drip irrigation with experimental observations.•HYDRUS-2D could well simulate the deep soil water dynamics but not surface soil water.•HYDRUS-2D basically could be used to simulate the actual evaporation, transpiration and evapotranspiration.•The simulation error of actual evapotranspiration stemmed mainly from the simulation error of crop transpiration.