Upscaling soil saturated hydraulic conductivity from pore throat characteristics

Abstract

Upscaling and/or estimating saturated hydraulic conductivity K sat at the core scale from microscopic/macroscopic soil characteristics has been actively under investigation in the hydrology and soil physics communities for several decades. Numerous models have been developed based on different approaches, such as the bundle of capillary tubes model, pedotransfer functions, etc. In this study, we apply concepts from critical path analysis, an upscaling technique first developed in the physics literature, to estimate saturated hydraulic conductivity at the core scale from microscopic pore throat characteristics reflected in capillary pressure data. With this new model, we find K sat estimations to be within a factor of 3 of the average measured saturated hydraulic conductivities reported by Rawls et al. (1982) for the eleven USDA soil texture classes. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords

Capillary pressure curve; Critical path analysis; Electrical conductivity; Katz and Thompson model; Saturated hydraulic conductivity

Published in

Advances in Water Resources
2017, volume: 104, pages: 105-113
Publisher: ELSEVIER SCI LTD

SLU Authors

• Jarvis, Nicholas

  • Department of Soil and Environment, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Soil Science

Publication identifier

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.advwatres.2017.03.016

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/90660