The design and analysis of surface water pollution control practices such as vegetative filter strips and riparian buffers typically focus on surface runoff, with limited attention given to subsurface flow and transport. Field evidence suggests a prevalence of macropore flow (MF) in the riparian vadose zone (RVZ) due to abundant biological activity (e.g., fauna and roots) and steep hydraulic gradients created by the adjacent stream and the presence of a seasonally shallow water table (SWT). Because rapid leaching and subsurface transport of contaminants can be significant with MF, their prevalence in riparian buffers can negate the intended benefits of this widely adopted surface runoff pollution control practice. While theories exist for modeling preferential flow processes, experimental and modeling techniques are still lacking to characterize in situ RVZ macropore network morphologies at the soil profile and landscape scales. Importantly, the presence of a seasonal SWT can increase MF and transport processes neglected in current analyses. Additional research is needed to evaluate holistic modeling frameworks that can represent MF from measurable parameters at the riparian field scale. In this work, we review various MF theories and concepts suitable to RVZ conditions and identify current limitations and knowledge gaps. We emphasize the use of dual-permeability approaches as a compromise between model complexity and parameter identifiability. We also identify the need for wellcontrolled experimental studies using the latest monitoring technology and validation studies at the laboratory and field scales. Only then can decision-support tools realistically predict the influence of preferential flow processes on the performance of riparian buffers as a surface water quality control practice.Abbreviations: MF, macropore flow; RVZ, riparian vadose zone; SR, source-responsive; SWT, shallow water table.Floodplains are important ecosystems influenced significantly by adjacent agricultural and urban land-use practices. Soil disturbance and agrochemicals applied to upland areas can lead to a release of contaminants, such as sediments, nutrients (N and P), and pesticides that degrade adjacent surface waters, reduce an ecosystem's resilience, and eventually result in a potentially irreversible regime shift of the aquatic environment with unpredictable consequences (Folke et al., 2004).Within floodplains, riparian zones are variable-width areas of natural or implanted vegetation (i.e., riparian buffers) bordering streams or channels. Because of their dense vegetation and high biological activity, riparian areas serve as a buffer and transition zone between the rest of the floodplain and the surface water body. Best management practices are often used to control water pollution, including the use of these riparian areas, by selecting vegetation and characteristics that reduce overall flow and transport. Thus, riparian buffers are often designed and managed as a best management practice to control surface runoff pollution (Low...

HighlightsResearch methods are needed to study preferential flow processes at pore scale and high temporal resolution.Novel verification of the light transmission method shows high efficiency to measure rapid transient soil water flow.Recast of a previous physical model allows reliable pore-scale water content quantification in translucent soil profiles.Insights from the light transmission method can inform preferential flow modeling efforts.Abstract. Understanding rapid transient flows in the soil unsaturated zone continues to be a major challenge in hydrology and water quality engineering. For example, surface runoff mitigation by riparian buffers can be limited by rapid transient flows due to the natural propensity of these areas for preferential flow pathways (i.e., caused by roots, wormholes, or wetting/drying cycles). However, current monitoring technologies are limited in their ability to capture rapid soil preferential flows at high spatial and temporal resolutions. Among the state-of-the-art technologies to monitor preferential flow, the light transmission method (LTM) has become a promising tool to quantify pore-scale water contents at a laboratory scale, but its reliability and consistency need further study. The objectives of this study are to recast a previously developed LTM physical model, propose a novel verification method to assess LTM reliability to measure pore-scale water dynamics in laboratory translucent soil profiles, and identify the representative pore radius of translucent soil profiles based on their average number of pores. This study found a high measuring efficiency with LTM for soil moisture and drainage estimations (NSE > 0.98, RMSE < 5.4%), showing its potential for use in laboratory analysis of pore-scale rapid transient water dynamics typically found in preferential flow through the vadose zone. This study also shows that the parameter traditionally associated with the number of pores in a translucent soil profile is a fitting parameter with no direct physical meaning. Keywords: Beer-Lambert law, Fresnel law, Light transmission method, Preferential flow, Riparian buffer, Vadose zone.

HighlightsHigh ecohydrological activity drives macropore prevalence in riparian buffers.An abundance of macropore flow (MF) was confirmed in a field riparian buffer in Kenya.Source-response (SR) and multilayer kinematic diffusive wave (MKDW) MF models are compared.A novel MKDW modeling framework efficiently identifies and predicts preferential flow in riparian buffers.Abstract. The significant ecohydrological activity typical of riparian buffers makes them potential hotspots of macropores, i.e., structured preferential flow pathways, through the soil vadose zone. The prevalence of these preferential pathways can allow transported contaminants to bypass the soil matrix and quickly reach a seasonal shallow water table and the adjacent surface waterbody. This quick transport can ultimately limit the role of riparian buffers for runoff pollution control. Currently, there are no management tools that incorporate macropore flow (MF) when assessing riparian buffer performance. The objective of this study was to experimentally quantify and mathematically simulate macropore flow and arrival time in a riparian buffer under field conditions. Three infiltration experiments were conducted with a grid of 20 time-domain transmission (TDT) dielectric soil moisture sensors along a field riparian buffer transect in Kenya to quantify the presence of macropore flow and to test two non-Darcian soil MF models, including the source-responsive (SR) model and the modified kinematic-dispersive wave (MKDW) model developed in this study, by adding a user-defined multilayer convection scheme and a new hysteresis function between water flux and content. The abundance of MF in the riparian buffer was corroborated experimentally. Modeling results showed that the MKDW model was an efficient (average NSE of 0.937 and 0.721 for calibration and testing, respectively), flexible, and robust method to identify and represent non-linear and non-sequential MF signals at any soil depth and antecedent conditions. The SR model was computationally inexpensive and provided good calibration results (NSE = 0.867) but required piecemeal recalibration of the travel time and maximum water content at each layer and yielded lower performance in testing. The Akaike (AIC) and Bayesian (BIC) information criteria showed that MKDW outperformed SR when accounting for the trade-off between model complexity and efficiency. The results support further research focused on independent characterization of model parameters at the field scale, and the inclusion of MKDW in holistic riparian buffer management and decision-support tools such as VFSmod. Keywords: Kinematic-dispersive wave, Macropore flow, Numerical modeling, Preferential flow, Riparian vadose zone.