Infiltration and drainage processes in multi-layered coarse soils

Abstract

Huang, M., Barbour, S. L., Elshorbagy, A., Zettl, J. D. and Si, B. C. 2011. Infiltration and drainage processes in multi-layered coarse soils. Can. J. Soil Sci. 91: 169–183. Infiltration and drainage processes in multi-layered soils are complicated by contrasting hydraulic properties. The objective of this study was to evaluate the performances of the hysteretic and non-hysteretic models to simulate the infiltration and drainage processes from three different natural soil profiles containing as many as 20 texturally different layers. Hydraulic properties were estimated from soil textures using pedotransfer functions and were calibrated and validated using measured water contents during infiltration and drainage phases, respectively. The results supported the use of the Arya-Paris pedotransfer function to estimate the wetting curve when contact angles are incorporated. The unique Kozeny-Carmen equation parameter was evaluated by optimizing the estimated saturated hydraulic conductivity. The calibrated numerical model (Hydrus-1D) accurately simulated soil water content profiles and water volumes during the infiltration and drainage phases. The mean error of prediction (MEP) between the measured and estimated soil water contents varied from –0.030 to 0.010 cm3 cm−3, and the standard deviation of prediction (SDP) from 0.003 to 0.057 cm3 cm−3. The simulation was improved for more heterogeneous soil profiles when hysteresis was taken into account. The measured and simulated results indicated that the soil profile with vertical heterogeneity in soil texture can store more water than the similar textured vertically homogeneous soils under drained conditions.

Effects of different vegetation restoration on soil water storage and water balance in the Chinese Loess Plateau

“…Unit: millimeter. humid regions, where the soil bulk density significantly decreases after vegetation restoration along with the increase in soil porosity, saturated hydraulic conductivity, aggregate stability, and waterholding capacity (Huang et al, 2011). However, in the semi-arid Loess Plateau, the soil bulk density increases with trees growing under P. tabuliformis plantations (Chen et al, 2008).…”

“…Desertification, most likely, occurs when population and land use pressures are not carefully considered (Duniway et al, 2010;Huang et al, 2011). Vegetation restoration using woody species is encouraged worldwide because of its several benefits (Malagnoux, 2007), such as soil erosion control (Huang et al, 2011), sediment reduction (Moran et al, 2009), hydrological regime regulation (Yaseef et al, 2009), and carbon sequestration . However, woody species consume more water by evapotranspiration than other vegetation types, such as natural grassland (Cao et al, 2009), and cause runoff reduction (Yi and Wang, 2013).…”

Characterizing the spatial variability of the hydraulic conductivity of reclamation soils using air permeability

“…The measured PSD at each location was used to estimate the SWRC by the Arya-Paris pedotransfer functions (PTF, Arya et al, 1999), while the van-Genuchten equation was used to fit the SWRC (van Genuchten, 1980). Huang et al (2011) used measured SWRCs to demonstrate that the Arya-Paris PTF could be used to estimate the SWRC for sand.…”

A Simplified Infiltration Model for Predicting Cumulative Infiltration during Vertical Line Source Irrigation

“…Table 1 compares parameters S and A for different soil textures, and Figure 6 shows the predicted values based on Equations (10) and (11). It is clear from the figures that the predicted value values of S and A were in good agreement with almost all simulated values, indicating that the simplified model can be used to predict S and A.…”

“…Of these, soil texture is important in determining irrigation design parameters, because of its great influence on infiltration [11,12]. Soil bulk density is an important factor that affects soil infiltration capacity.…”