Derivation of physically based soil hydraulic parameters in New Zealand by combining soil physics and hydropedology

Abstract

Field‐characterised soil morphological data (to 1 m depth) and modelled soil water release characteristics are recorded in the S‐map database for soils covering approximately 40% of New Zealand's soil area. This paper shows the development of the Smap‐Hydro database that estimates hydraulic parameters by synergising soil morphologic data recorded in S‐map and soil physics. The Smap‐Hydro parameters were derived using the bi‐modal Kosugi hydraulic function. The validity of the Smap‐Hydro parameters was tested by applying them within an uncalibrated physically based hydrological model (HyPix) and comparing results with soil water content, θ, measured with Aquaflex soil moisture probes (0–40 cm deep) at 24 sites across New Zealand. The HyPix model provided an excellent fit with observed soil water content for 25% of the sites, a good fit for 33% of the sites and a poor fit for 42% of the sites. Applying the model to all soils in the S‐map database required adjustments for the occurrence of rock fragments, hydraulic discontinuities caused by soil pans and required the addition of boundary conditions for water tables and the occurrence of impermeable rock. A discussion on how we can further synergise the development of pedotransfer functions with knowledge of soil physics is provided.