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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Tifton, Georgia » Southeast Watershed Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #115243
Title: HYDRAULIC CHARACTERIZATION FOR SEVERAL COASTAL PLAIN SOILS

Author
item Bosch, David - Dave
item Truman, Clinton
item WEST, LARRY - UNIV OF GEORGIA
item SHAW, J - AUBURN UNIV

Submitted to: American Society of Agricultural Engineers
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/20/2000
Publication Date: 1/20/2000
Citation: BOSCH, D.D., TRUMAN, C.C., WEST, L.T., SHAW, J.N. HYDRAULIC CHARACTERIZATION FOR SEVERAL COASTAL PLAIN SOILS. AMERICAN SOCIETY OF AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERS. #002140. 2000.

Interpretive Summary: In recent years, great advances have been made in our understanding of how water moves through the soil. However, we are still severely limited by our inability to predict water flow through highly variable soil types. To help with this problem, we quantified the flow process for several soils in the coastal plain region of the United States. We then used these data to examine equations which describe soil-water relationships. These relationships are useful for examining how different soil types respond to different climatic conditions, quantifying water available for plant growth and crop production, predicting runoff and flooding, and examining the implications on water quality. While some of the results were encouraging, they also emphasized the difficulties of developing relationships which are accurate across many different soil types.

Technical Abstract: Soil-water and hydraulic characteristics for six soils over several horizons down to a depth of 180 cm were measured. All soils were collected from the coastal plain region of the United States. The textures of the sampled horizons ranged from sand to clay. The Brooks-Corey soil-water relationship was fit to the measured soil-water release data. The measured ddata and the estimated coefficients were found to vary considerably. Whil some of the measurements were related to texture, most were poorly correlated. These data indicate direct measurement may be necessary to obtain reliable estimates of the soil-water characteristics.