Soil macroporosity and infiltration characteristics of a forest podzol

Spatial distribution of soil macroporosity was determined for a forest podzol from tension infiltrometer measurements at the soil surface. Surface‐derived macroporosity values were compared with point infiltration characteristics obtained from soil water content and soil water chemistry measurements during an experimental irrigation, and with parameters of a kinematic wave model applied to soil water content data. Macroporosity estimated by the tension infiltrometer ranged from 0·00087 to 0·0219% of soil volume, and infiltration at these two sites was dominated by propagation of a well‐defined wetting front through the soil profile and bypass flow via soil macropores, respectively. Infiltration at sites with intermediate macroporosities reflected a combination of these two processes, although results were inconclusive at one site owing to lateral flow at the base of the soil profile. There was no agreement between macroporosities estimated by the tension infiltrometer and the kinematic wave model. The maximum soil conductance parameter within the profile at a site, however, was related directly to the surface‐derived macroporosity. The partial agreement between surface‐derived macroporosity estimates and point infiltration characteristics shown here supports the use of tension infiltrometry as a rapid, non‐destructive method of assessing spatial variations in the relative contribution of macropore flow to the infiltration process. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Difference infiltrometer: a method to measure temporally variable infiltration rates during rainstorms

We developed a difference infiltrometer to measure time series of non‐steady infiltration rates during rainstorms at the point scale. The infiltrometer uses two, tipping bucket rain gages. One gage measures rainfall onto, and the other measures runoff from, a small circular plot about 0.5‐m in diameter. The small size allows the infiltration rate to be computed as the difference of the cumulative rainfall and cumulative runoff without having to route water through a large plot. Difference infiltrometers were deployed in an area burned by the 2010 Fourmile Canyon Fire near Boulder, Colorado, USA, and data were collected during the summer of 2011. The difference infiltrometer demonstrated the capability to capture different magnitudes of infiltration rates and temporal variability associated with convective (high intensity, short duration) and cyclonic (low intensity, long duration) rainstorms. Data from the difference infiltrometer were used to estimate saturated hydraulic conductivity of soil affected by the heat from a wildfire. The difference infiltrometer is portable and can be deployed in rugged, steep terrain and does not require the transport of water, as many rainfall simulators require, because it uses natural rainfall. It can be used to assess infiltration models, determine runoff coefficients, identify rainfall depth or rainfall intensity thresholds to initiate runoff, estimate parameters for infiltration models, and compare remediation treatments on disturbed landscapes. The difference infiltrometer can be linked with other types of soil monitoring equipment in long‐term studies for detecting temporal and spatial variability at multiple time scales and in nested designs where it can be linked to hillslope and basin‐scale runoff responses. Published 2012. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.     

Determining hydraulic properties of a loam soil by alternative infiltrometer techniques

Testing infiltrometer techniques to determine soil hydraulic properties is necessary for specific soils. For a loam soil, the water retention and hydraulic conductivity predicted by the BEST (Beerkan Estimation of Soil Transfer parameters) procedure of soil hydraulic characterization was compared with data collected by more standard laboratory and field techniques. Six infiltrometer techniques were also compared in terms of saturated soil hydraulic conductivity, K_s. BEST yielded water retention values statistically similar to those obtained in the laboratory and K_s values practically coinciding with those determined in the field with the pressure infiltrometer (PI). The unsaturated soil hydraulic conductivity measured with the tension infiltrometer (TI) was reproduced satisfactorily by BEST only close to saturation. BEST, the PI, one‐potential experiments with both the TI and the mini disk infiltrometer (MDI), the simplified falling head (SFH) technique and the bottomless bucket (BB) method yielded statistically similar estimates of K_s, differing at the most by a factor of three. Smaller values were obtained with longer and more soil‐disturbing infiltration runs. Any of the tested infiltration techniques appears usable to obtain the order of magnitude of K_s at the field site, but the BEST, BB and PI data appear more appropriate to characterize the soil at some stage during a rainfall event. Additional investigations on both similar and different soils would allow development of more general procedures to apply infiltrometer techniques for soil hydraulic characterization. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Détermination des variations de la capacité d'absorption d'un sol en place sous averses simulées / Obtaining variations of field infiltration capacity from simulated rainstorm experiments

Abstract

By sprinkling an experimental plot with different intensities of simulated rainfall starting with different initial conditions of soil moisture, the variations of infiltration capacity and consequently the response of the soil surface to runoff are evaluated. The following values are successively determined from experimental data: the mean depth of surface storage; the mean depth of detention and the parameters of a chosen infiltration formula.     

Sources of inherent infiltration variability in postwildfire soils

An automated disc infiltrometer was developed to improve the measurements of soil hydraulic properties (saturated hydraulic conductivity and sorptivity) of soils affected by wildfire. Guidelines are given for interpreting curves showing cumulative infiltration as a function of time measured by the autodisc. The autodisc was used to measure the variability of these soil hydraulic properties in three different sample sets: (a) a reference soil consisting of a nonrepellent, uniform, fine sand; (b) soils with the same soil textural classification derived from the same bedrock geology but having different initial burn severities; and (c) soils from different bedrock geology but having the same burn severity. The autodisc infiltrometer had greater sampling rates and volume resolution when compared with the visual minidisc infiltrometer from previous studies. There was no statistical difference in the mean values measured using the autodisc and visual minidisc, but the variability of the autodisc measurements was significantly less than the visual minidisc for a given set of samples. The greatest variability of soil hydraulic properties in reference samples with uniform particle size was attributed to different pore geometries (coefficient of variation [COV] = 0.28–0.34). Unburned field samples (same soil type) with heterogeneous particle sizes had greater variability (COV = 0.57–0.78) than the reference samples. However, this basic variability decreased or remained constant in these field samples as burn severity increased. Additional sources of variability (COV = 0.53–1.99) were attributed to multiple layers resulting from ash or sediment deposition. Results indicate that resolving differences in soil hydraulic properties from different sites requires more than the common 10 random samples because of the multiple sources of variability.     

Characterizing the hydraulic properties of unsaturated sand considering various porosities and drying‐wetting paths of the retention curve

Previous studies have shown that water retention curve (WRC) and the hydraulic conductivity vary because of changes of the void ratio or porosity of soil. However, limited documents pointed out the change of hydraulic properties of soil when compacted to different porosities while considering both of the drying and wetting processes of the WRC. This information is sometimes necessary for research like finger flow analysis or the occurrence of wetting and drying cycles as what would be seen in the field. Therefore, this study aims to examine the change of WRC characteristics with varied porosity considering both of the drying and wetting path in WRC by conducting a sand box experiment. Results show that the same type of sand compacted to various porosities have different hydraulic parameters. Hydraulic conductivities generally decrease with reduced porosities; shape parameter α of the van Genuchten equation (1980) linearly decreases with declining porosity and shape parameter n in a reversal manner for the sands of interest whether in the drying process or wetting process. The unsaturated properties of sand are further characterized by inspecting the variations of moisture content, matric suction and vertical displacement of soil body subject to periodic changes of the water level by another sand box experiment. The outcomes suggest that the saturated water content and residual water content are changing during the wetting–drying process, which can be an implication of the changed properties of WRC. The characteristics of volumetric deformation might be varied as well because of the observation of the dissimilar patterns of the changing vertical displacements among each wetting–drying process. Infiltration patterns of the sands also are identified through numerical modelling by introducing a constant infiltration flux from the surface followed by a no‐influx condition. Results indicate that less water accumulates in the sand near the surface for the sand compacted to higher porosity, but water can move deeper. Hydraulic conductivity is found as the prime factor dominating the evolvement of wetting fronts. However, shape parameters of water retention curves also affect the infiltration pattern to some extent. In addition, different sands with similar porosities can have quite different infiltrating characteristics. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

REPORT ON THE ACTIVITIES OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION ON SNOW AND ICE FOR THE PERIOD 1971–1975

ABSTRACT

An infiltration model based on the Green-Ampt assumptions is developed for a class of non-uniform soils in which saturated hydraulic conductivity decreases as an exponential function of depth, and the storage-suction factor C = ΔθΔΨ is a constant. An analysis of measured hydraulic conductivity and porosity data suggests that the model may be useful in some soils where the changes of hydraulic characteristics with depth are of this form. A method for using the model with time variable rainfall rates is given. The model is applied to simulate the experimental results of Childs &; Bybordi (1969) who measured infiltration into layered sand profiles. Agreement was satisfactory even for this case.     

Macroporosity and infiltration in blanket peat: the implications of tension disc infiltrometer measurements

Little is known about the processes of infiltration and water movement in the upper layers of blanket peat. A tension infiltrometer was used to measure hydraulic conductivity in a blanket peat in the North Pennines, England. Measurements were taken from the surface down to 20 cm in depth for peat under four different vegetation covers. It was found that macropore flow is a significant pathway for water in the upper layers of this soil type. It was also found that peat depth and surface vegetation cover were associated with macroporosity and saturated hydraulic conductivity. The proportion of macropore flow was found to be greater at 5 cm depth than at 0, 10 and 20 cm depth. Peat beneath a Sphagnum cover tends to be more permeable and a greater proportion of macropore flow can occur beneath this vegetation type. Functional macroporosity and matrix flow in the near‐surface layers of bare peat appear to have been affected by weathering processes. Comparision of results with rainfall records demonstrates that infiltration‐excess overland flow is unlikely to be a common runoff‐generating mechanism on blanket peat; rather, a saturation‐excess mechanism combined with percolation‐excess above much less permeable layers dominates the runoff response. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Analysis of water movement in paddy rice fields (I) experimental studies

For the purpose of increasing the amount of ground water recharge, we investigated the hydraulic characteristics of water infiltration in a flooded paddy rice field in Ten-Chung, Chung-Hwa county, Taiwan. Experimental results based on mini-tensiometers and double ring infiltrometer measurements indicated that the least permeable layer occurred at the interface of the puddled topsoil and non-puddled subsoil. The average thickness of this layer was about 7.5 cm and saturated hydraulic conductivity ranged from 0.034 to 0.083 cm/day. Vertical infiltration flow was saturated within the plow sole layer and became unsaturated in the subsoil below the plow sole layer. The hydraulic conductivity of the subsoil, 20–30 times greater than that of the plow sole layer, revealed that the subsoil was more permeable than the plow sole layer. In situ measurements also demonstrated that breakage of the plow sole layer increased infiltration rate by a factor of 3.7. Increasing ponded water depth from 6 to 16 cm increased infiltration 1.5 fold. It is suggested that using the fallow paddy rice fields without puddling is a feasible way to enhance groundwater recharge, but for cultivated paddy rice fields, breaking the plow sole needs further study in terms of its recoverability and because of the potential contamination of the shallow aquifer by agrochemicals. The experimental data can be applied in numerical simulation models to quantify detailed water movement mechanisms and accurately estimate the amount of ground water recharge in paddy rice fields.     

Analysing tension infiltrometer data from sloped surface using two‐dimensional approximation

Tension infiltrometers allow water to infiltrate into the soils at various specified pressure heads. The resulting infiltration rates can then be analysed for soil hydraulic properties by either analytical or inverse numerical methods. Tension infiltrometers however are primarily designed to be deployed on horizontal land surfaces, and their applications have been studied widely using an inverse numerical tool HYDRUS‐2D. However, natural landscapes are often nonhorizontal, and infiltration through tension infiltrometers on sloped surfaces is no longer an axisymmetrical two‐dimensional (2D) process but a fully three‐dimensional (3D) one. In addition, minimal research has examined the effect of simplifying the 3D problem to a 2D one on the hydraulic conductivity estimated using tension infiltrometer data from different land slopes of various soil types. Therefore, in this study, tension infiltrometer data on different slopes have been obtained from a catchment located at National University of Singapore. In addition, tension infiltrometer data of six soil types on different slopes and with different initial water content were simulated using HYDRUS‐3D. Combining field measurements, forward and inverse modelling, the influence of applying a 2D approximation on hydraulic property estimations using tension infiltrometer data was examined. The results show that the estimations for soils with high infiltration rates are more sensitive to application of the 2D approximation. The maximum allowable slopes for employing 2D approximation on clayey and sandy soils are 25° and less than 3°, respectively. Furthermore, the maximum allowable slope decreases with decreasing initial water content. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Inverse upscaling of hydraulic parameters during constant flux infiltration using borehole radar

Modeling unsaturated flow in porous media requires constitutive relations that describe the soil water retention and soil hydraulic conductivity as a function of either potential or water content. Often, the hydraulic parameters that describe these relations are directly measured on small soil cores, and many cores are needed to upscale to the entire heterogeneous flow field. An alternative to the forward upscaling method using small samples are inverse upscaling methods that incorporate soft data from geophysical measurements observed directly on the larger flow field. In this paper, we demonstrate that the hydraulic parameters can be obtained from cross borehole ground penetrating radar by measuring the first arrival travel time of electromagnetic waves (represented by raypaths) from stationary antennae during a constant flux infiltration experiment. The formulation and coupling of the hydrological and geophysical models rely on a constant velocity wetting front that causes critical refraction at the edge of the front as it passes by the antennae. During this critical refraction period, the slope of the first arrival data can be used to calculate (1) the wetting velocity and (2) the hydraulic conductivity of the wet (or saturated) soil. If the soil is undersaturated during infiltration, then an estimate of the saturated water content is needed before calculating the saturated hydraulic conductivity. The hydraulic conductivity value is then used in a nonlinear global optimization scheme to estimate the remaining two parameters of a Broadbridge and White soil.     

Modelling of infiltration using artificial intelligence techniques in semi-arid Iran

ABSTRACT

Infiltration plays a fundamental role in streamflow, groundwater recharge, subsurface flow, and surface and subsurface water quality and quantity. In this study, adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS), support vector machine (SVM) and random forest (RF) models were used to determine cumulative infiltration and infiltration rate in arid areas in Iran. The input data were sand, clay, silt, density of soil and soil moisture, while the output data were cumulative infiltration and infiltration rate, the latter measured using a double-ring infiltrometer at 16 locations. The results show that SVM with radial basis kernel function better estimated cumulative infiltration (RMSE = 0.2791 cm) compared to the other models. Also, SVM with M4 radial basis kernel function better estimated the infiltration rate (RMSE = 0.0633 cm/h) than the ANFIS and RF models. Thus, SVM was found to be the most suitable model for modelling infiltration in the study area.     

Estimating Tortuosity Coefficients Based on Hydraulic Conductivity

While the tortuosity coefficient is commonly estimated using an expression based on total porosity, this relationship is demonstrated to not be applicable (and thus is often misapplied) over a broad range of soil textures. The fundamental basis for a correlation between the apparent diffusion tortuosity coefficient and hydraulic conductivity is demonstrated, although such a relationship is not typically considered. An empirical regression for estimating the tortuosity coefficient based on hydraulic conductivity for saturated, unconsolidated soil is derived based on results from 14 previously reported diffusion experiments performed with a broad range of soil textures. Analyses of these experimental results confirm that total porosity is a poor predictor for the tortuosity coefficient over a large range of soil textures. The apparent diffusion tortuosity coefficient is more reliably estimated based on hydraulic conductivity.     

A new saturated/unsaturated model for stormwater infiltration systems

Infiltration systems are widely used as an effective urban stormwater control measure. Most design methods and models roughly approximate the complex physical flow processes in these systems using empirical equations and fixed infiltration rates to calculate emptying times from full. Sophisticated variably saturated flow models are available, but rarely applied owing to their complexity. This paper describes the development and testing of an integrated one‐dimensional model of flow through the porous storage of a typical infiltration system and surrounding soils. The model accounts for the depth in the storage, surrounding soil moisture conditions and the interaction between the storage and surrounding soil. It is a front‐tracking model that innovatively combines a soil‐moisture‐based solution of Richard's equation for unsaturated flow with piston flow through a saturated zone as well as a reservoir equation for flow through a porous storage. This allows the use of a simple non‐iterative numerical solution that can handle ponded infiltration into dry soils. The model is more rigorous than approximate stormwater infiltration system models and could therefore be valuable in everyday practice. A range of test cases commonly used to test soil water flow models for infiltration in unsaturated conditions, drainage from saturation and infiltration under ponded conditions were used to test the model along with an experiment with variable depth in a porous storage over saturated conditions. Results show that the model produces a good fit to the observed data, analytical solutions and Hydrus. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Sensitivity of soil parameters in unsaturated zone modelling and the relation between effective,laboratory and in situ estimates

Simulation of soil moisture content requires effective soil hydraulic parameters that are valid at the modelling scale. This study investigates how these parameters can be estimated by inverse modelling using soil moisture measurements at 25 locations at three different depths (at the surface, at 30 and 60 cm depth) on an 80 by 20 m hillslope. The study presents two global sensitivity analyses to investigate the sensitivity in simulated soil moisture content of the different hydraulic parameters used in a one‐dimensional unsaturated zone model based on Richards' equation. For estimation of the effective parameters the shuffled complex evolution algorithm is applied. These estimated parameters are compared to their measured laboratory and in situ equivalents. Soil hydraulic functions were estimated in the laboratory on 100 cm³ undisturbed soil cores collected at 115 locations situated in two horizons in three profile pits along the hillslope. Furthermore, in situ field saturated hydraulic conductivity was estimated at 120 locations using single‐ring pressure infiltrometer measurements. The sensitivity analysis of 13 soil physical parameters (saturated hydraulic conductivity (K_s), saturated moisture content (θ_s), residual moisture content (θ_r), inverse of the air‐entry value (α), van Genuchten shape parameter (n), Averjanov shape parameter (N) for both horizons, and depth (d) from surface to B horizon) in a two‐layer single column model showed that the parameter N is the least sensitive parameter. K_s of both horizons, θ_s of the A horizon and d were found to be the most sensitive parameters. Distributions over all locations of the effective parameters and the distributions of the estimated soil physical parameters from the undisturbed soil samples and the single‐ring pressure infiltrometer estimates were found significantly different at a 5% level for all parameters except for α of the A horizon and K_s and θ_s of the B horizon. Different reasons are discussed to explain these large differences. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Estimation of soil hydraulic properties and their uncertainty through the Beerkan infiltration experiment

The Beerkan method based on in situ single‐ring water infiltration experiments along with the relevant specific Beerkan estimation of soil transfer parameters (BEST) algorithm is attractive for simple soil hydraulic characterization. However, the BEST algorithm may lead to erroneous or null values for the saturated hydraulic conductivity and sorptivity especially when there are only few infiltration data points under the transient flow state, either for sandy soil or soils in wet conditions. This study developed an alternative algorithm for analysis of the Beerkan infiltration experiment referred to as BEST‐generalized likelihood uncertainty estimation (GLUE). The proposed method estimates the scale parameters of van Genuchten water retention and Brooks–Corey hydraulic conductivity functions through the GLUE methodology. The GLUE method is a Bayesian Monte Carlo parameter estimation technique that makes use of a likelihood function to measure the goodness‐of‐fit between modelled and observed data. The results showed that using a combination of three different likelihood measurements based on observed transient flow, steady‐state flow and experimental steady‐state infiltration rate made the BEST‐GLUE procedure capable of performing an efficient inverse analysis of Beerkan infiltration experiments. Therefore, it is more applicable for a wider range of soils with contrasting texture, structure, and initial and saturated water content. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A comparison between the single ring pressure infiltrometer and simplified falling head techniques

Testing the relative performances of the single ring pressure infiltrometer (PI) and simplified falling head (SFH) techniques to determine the field saturated soil hydraulic conductivity, K_fs, at the near point scale may help to better establish the usability of these techniques for interpreting and simulating hydrological processes. A sampling of 10 Sicilian sites showed that the measured K_fs was generally higher with the SFH technique than the PI one, with statistically significant differences by a factor varying from 3 to 192, depending on the site. A short experiment with the SFH technique yielded higher K_fs values because a longer experiment with the PI probably promoted short‐term swelling phenomena reducing macroporosity. Moreover, the PI device likely altered the infiltration surface at the beginning of the run, particularly in the less stable soils, where soil particle arrangement may be expected to vary upon wetting. This interpretation was supported by a soil structure stability index, SSI, and also by the hydraulic conductivity data obtained with the tension infiltrometer, i.e. with a practically negligible disturbance of the sampled soil surface. In particular, a statistically significant, increasing relationship with SSI and an unsaturated conductivity greater than the saturated one were only detected for the K_fs data obtained with the PI. The SFH and PI techniques should be expected to yield more similar results in relatively rigid porous media (low percentages of fine particles and structurally stable soils) than in soils that modify appreciably their particle arrangement upon wetting. The simultaneous use of the two techniques may allow to improve K_fs determination in soils that change their hydrodynamic behaviour during a runoff producing rainfall event. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Impact of land use on the hydraulic properties of the topsoil in a small French catchment

The hydraulic properties of the topsoil control the partition of rainfall into infiltration and runoff at the soil surface. They must be characterized for distributed hydrological modelling. This study presents the results of a field campaign documenting topsoil hydraulic properties in a small French suburban catchment (7 km²) located near Lyon, France. Two types of infiltration tests were performed: single ring infiltration tests under positive head and tension‐disk infiltration using a mini‐disk. Both categories were processed using the BEST—Beerkan Estimation of Soil Transfer parameters—method to derive parameters describing the retention and hydraulic conductivity curves. Dry bulk density and particle size data were also sampled. Almost all the topsoils were found to belong to the sandy loam soil class. No significant differences in hydraulic properties were found in terms of pedologic units, but the results showed a high impact of land use on these properties. The lowest dry bulk density values were obtained in forested soils with the highest organic matter content. Permanent pasture soils showed intermediate values, whereas the highest values were encountered in cultivated lands. For saturated hydraulic conductivity, the highest values were found in broad‐leaved forests and small woods. The complementary use of tension‐disk and positive head infiltration tests highlighted a sharp increase of hydraulic conductivity between near saturation and saturated conditions, attributed to macroporosity effect. The ratio of median saturated hydraulic conductivity to median hydraulic conductivity at a pressure of − 20 mm of water was about 50. The study suggests that soil texture, such as used in most pedo‐transfer functions, might not be sufficient to properly map the variability of soil hydraulic properties. Land use information should be considered in the parameterizations of topsoil within hydrological models to better represent in situ conditions, as illustrated in the paper. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Experimental study and mathematical modelling of soluble chemical transfer from unsaturated/saturated soil to surface runoff

A one‐dimensional, two‐layer solute transport model is developed to simulate chemical transport process in an initially unsaturated soil with ponding water on the soil surface before surface runoff starts. The developed mathematical model is tested against a laboratory experiment. The infiltration and diffusion processes are mathematically lumped together and described by incomplete mixing parameters. Based on mass conservation and water balance equations, the model is developed to describe solute transport in a two‐zone layer, a ponding runoff zone and a soil mixing zone. The two‐zone layer is treated as one system to avoid describing the complicated chemical transport processes near the soil surface in the mixing zone. The proposed model was analytically solved, and the solutions agreed well with the experimental data. The developed experimental method and mathematical model were used to study the effect of the soil initial moisture saturation on chemical concentration in surface runoff. The study results indicated that, when the soil was initially saturated, chemical concentration in surface runoff was significantly (two orders of magnitude) higher than that with initially unsaturated soil, while the initial chemical concentrations at the two cases were of the same magnitude. The soil mixing depth for the initially unsaturated soil was much larger than that for the initially saturated soil, and the incomplete runoff mixing parameter was larger for the initially unsaturated soil. The higher the infiltration rate of the soil, the greater the infiltration‐related incomplete mixing parameter. According to the quantitative analysis, the soil mixing depth was found to be sensitive for both initially unsaturated and saturated soils, and the incomplete runoff mixing parameter was sensitive for initially saturated soil but not for the initially unsaturated soil; the incomplete infiltration mixing parameter behaved just the opposite. Some suggestions are made for reducing chemical loss from runoff. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.