Soil Properties
Refer to Chapter 4 of the Rainfall Runoff Processes Workbook
Infiltration is the movement of water into the soil. Soil is a
porous medium composed of solid granular particles and the voids between
the particles which may be filled with air or water. The
soil moisture content of soils quantifies the fraction of this void
space that is filled with water. This section focuses on soil
properties and the flow of water through soil as a porous medium.
After completion of Section 4, you should be able to answer the
following questions
- How are porosity, volumetric moisture content, bulk density and
degree of saturation defined? How would one calculate these soil
properties in an experiment?
- How is soil moisture content measured?
- How to determine and characterize soil texture?
- What is the relationship between elevation head, pressure head, and hydraulic head?
- What is the relationship between the flow rate through a porous medium and the hydraulic head gradient?
- How would one use a Darcy experiment to calculate hydraulic conductivity?
- How is hydraulic conductivity related to intrinsic permeability, fluid viscosity and the pore size distribution in the soil?
- How are macroscopic and microscopic properties of soil related?
- What is the relationship between hydraulic conductivity, negative pressure head and moisture content for unsaturated soils?
- What is hysteresis and why does it occur?
- How does soil texture affect hydraulic conductivity?
- What are residual moisture content, field capacity, drainable
porosity, permanent wilting point and plant available water? How
are these quantities estimated for a specific soil?
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