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Estimation of the Saturated Hydraulic Conductivity in Clay Soils from Soil Moisture Retention Data

Dep. of Soil Sciences, Swedish Univ. of Agricultural Sciences, Box 7014, S-75007 Uppsala, Sweden

* Corresponding author.

ABSTRACT

A generalized Kozeny-Carman equation was employed to relate saturated hydraulic conductivity (K_s) to effective porosity (_e) in clay profiles in Sweden with clay content >15% were analyzed. The value empirical constants. The term _e was defined as porosity () minus soil-water content at –30 kPa. Around 500 horizons from 60 soil profiles in Sweden with clay content >15% were analyzed. The value of n was tested with two statistical methods. According to the first method, a regression test on the log-log relationship between K_s and _e with least-squares lines fitted through the data, the exponent n was found to lie around 2 for soils with high clay content (>40%), and 3 for soils with lower clay content (15–40%). The correlation coefficients were moderate, ranging from 0.51 to 0.71 for different clay soil groups. In the second method, the cumulative frequency distributions of scaling factors for K_s determined from measured values of K_s were compared with scaling factors for K_s determined from _e. Reasonable agreements were obtained with n = 4 to 5 for soils with clay content >40%, and with n = 5 to 6 for soils with clay content 15 to 40%. The second method gave n-values that correspond well with other recent published work. The results indicate that the spatial distribution of K_s is estimated reasonably well from _e values, whereas the individual values of K_s are not estimated as well.

Contribution from the Dep. of Soil Sciences, Swedish Univ. of Agricultural Sciences.

Received for publication February 9, 1988.

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