A Methodology for Predicting Near Surface Soil Moisture.

Abstract

A comprehensive model of soil-water dynamics, a 'wetting front' model, was developed and tested. The model represents a variety of flow processes including infiltration, redistribution, drainage and evaporation. The accuracy of the model was tested by comparison with results from a finite difference solution of the Richards equation and was found to be a reasonable representation. The model was used to investigate the extent to which observed spatial variability in soil moisture may be due to soil heterogeneity. Results suggest that in excess of 50% of observed variance in soil moisture may be attributable to soil heterogeneity. The relationships among soil hydraulic parameters, the specification of which is necessary for any physically-based model including the wetting-front model, and soil physical characteristics were investigated using multivariate statistical methods. Statistical properties of the parameters in each soil textural class have been tabulated. (Author)

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Aug 06, 1984
Accession Number
ADA146211

Entities

People

  • B. J. Cosby
  • G. M. Hornberger
  • R. B. Clapp

Organizations

  • University of Virginia

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Human Systems
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Accuracy
  • Analysis Of Variance
  • Data Science
  • Discriminant Analysis
  • Ecology
  • Equations
  • Information Science
  • Moisture
  • Moisture Content
  • Particle Size
  • Physical Properties
  • Regression Analysis
  • Scientists
  • Simulations
  • Statistical Analysis
  • Surfaces
  • Surveys

Fields of Study

  • Agricultural and Food sciences

Readers

  • Agricultural Chemistry/Soil Science
  • Computational Modeling and Simulation