We present a relatively simple analytical/conceptual model for rainfall infiltration during complex storms. It is an approximate but physically based model which can treat intervals of either no rain, low rain, or evaporation. The infiltration model is based on the very general three‐parameter analytic model of Parlange et al. (1982), extended to treat soils with very high initial water content. The redistribution model is based on profile extension with shape similarity. A wide range of soil types can be simulated. The model is tested by comparison with numerical solutions of Richards's equation carried out for a variety of events upon four selected soils. The model simulates the solution to Richards's equation quite accurately, provided basic soil retention relations are parametrically represented. It simulates redistribution particularly well for redistribution intervals up to 20 hours. The model usefulness in comparison with the common and simple approach which disregards soil water redistribution is also shown.
Abstract. In this paper, we present and analyze a novel global database of
soil infiltration measurements, the Soil Water Infiltration Global (SWIG)
database. In total, 5023 infiltration curves were collected across all
continents in the SWIG database. These data were either provided and quality
checked by the scientists who performed the experiments or they were
digitized from published articles. Data from 54 different countries were
included in the database with major contributions from Iran, China, and the USA.
In addition to its extensive geographical coverage, the collected
infiltration curves cover research from 1976 to late 2017. Basic information
on measurement location and method, soil properties, and land use was
gathered along with the infiltration data, making the database valuable for
the development of pedotransfer functions (PTFs) for estimating soil hydraulic
properties, for the evaluation of infiltration measurement methods, and for
developing and validating infiltration models. Soil textural information
(clay, silt, and sand content) is available for 3842 out of 5023 infiltration
measurements (∼ 76%) covering nearly all soil USDA textural classes
except for the sandy clay and silt classes. Information on land use is
available for 76 % of the experimental sites with agricultural land use as
the dominant type (∼ 40%). We are convinced that the SWIG database
will allow for a better parameterization of the infiltration process in land
surface models and for testing infiltration models. All collected data and
related soil characteristics are provided online in
*.xlsx and *.csv formats for reference, and we add a disclaimer that the
database is for public domain use only and can be copied freely by
referencing it. Supplementary data are available at
https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.885492 (Rahmati et al., 2018). Data
quality assessment is strongly advised prior to any use of this database.
Finally, we would like to encourage scientists to extend and update the SWIG database
by uploading new data to it.
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