<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>The heterogeneity of water flow and solute transport was assessed during radioactive tracer infiltration experiment in a black clay loam soil using modified methods to estimate the effective cross section (ECS) and the degree of preferential flow (DPF). The results of field and numerical experiments showed that these parameters characterized the heterogeneity of water flow in the soils unequivocally. The ECS decreases non-linearly and the DPF increases linearly with an increase of the bypassing ratio (ratio of macropore flow rate to total flow rate). The ECS decreased and the DPF increased with depth, which suggests an increase in the heterogeneity of water flow with depth. The plot of the DPF against ECS values calculated from the tracer experiment data was consistent with the relationship obtained by the numerical simulation assuming preferential flow in the neighbourhood of three probes.</p></abstract>

The heterogeneity of water flow and solute transport was assessed during radioactive tracer infiltration experiment in a black clay loam soil using modified methods to estimate the effective cross section (ECS) and the degree of preferential flow (DPF). The results of field and numerical experiments showed that these parameters characterized the heterogeneity of water flow in the soils unequivocally. The ECS decreases non-linearly and the DPF increases linearly with an increase of the bypassing ratio (ratio of macropore flow rate to total flow rate). The ECS decreased and the DPF increased with depth, which suggests an increase in the heterogeneity of water flow with depth. The plot of the DPF against ECS values calculated from the tracer experiment data was consistent with the relationship obtained by the numerical simulation assuming preferential flow in the neighbourhood of three probes.

Comparison of two methods to assess heterogeneity of water flow in soils

Institute of Hydrology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Račianska 75, 831 02 Bratislava, Slovakia

Czech Technical University in Prague, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Thákurova 7, 166 29 Prague, Czech Republic

Wageningen University and Research Center, Alterra, Soil Science Center, P.O. Box 47, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands

M. Nodia Institute of Geophysics, 1 Alexidze str., 0193 Tbilisi, Georgia

Slovak Hydrometeorological Institute, Jeséniova 17, 833 15 Bratislava, Slovakia

Institute of Hydrodynamics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Pod Paťankou 30/5, 166 12 Prague, Czech Republic

Journal of Hydrology and Hydromechanics

{"article-title":"Comparison of two methods to assess heterogeneity of water flow in soils"}

The heterogeneity of water flow and solute transport was assessed during radioactive tracer infiltration experiment in a black clay loam soil using modified...

Comparison of two methods to assess heterogeneity of water flow in soils

Publicado en línea: 01 dic 2013

Páginas: 299 - 304

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/johh-2013-0038

This content is open access.