Relative performances of textural models in estimating soil moisture characteristic

Nandagiri, Lakshman and Prasad, Rama (1997) Relative performances of textural models in estimating soil moisture characteristic. In: Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering, 123 (3). 211-214 .

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Abstract

The soil moisture characteristic (SMC) forms an important input to mathematical models of water and solute transport in the unsaturated-soil zone. Owing to their simplicity and ease of use, texture-based regression models are commonly used to estimate the SMC from basic soil properties. In this study, the performances of six such regression models were evaluated on three soils. Moisture characteristics generated by the regression models were statistically compared with the characteristics developed independently from laboratory and in-situ retention data of the soil profiles. Results of the statistical performance evaluation, while providing useful information on the errors involved in estimating the SMC, also highlighted the importance of the nature of the data set underlying the regression models. Among the models evaluated, the one possessing an underlying data set of in-situ measurements was found to be the best estimator of the in-situ SMC for all the soils. Considerable errors arose when a textural model based on laboratory data was used to estimate the field retention characteristics of unsaturated soils.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Publisher:	American Society of Civil Engineers
Additional Information:	Copyright of this article belongs to American Society of Civil Engineers.
Department/Centre:	Division of Mechanical Sciences > Civil Engineering
Date Deposited:	30 Jun 2011 13:20
Last Modified:	30 Jun 2011 13:20
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/38386

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