Weynants, Mélanie
[UCL]
Vereecken, H.
[Agrosphere Institute, ICG-IV, Juelich, Germany]
Javaux, Mathieu
[UCL]
We revisited the Vereecken database, which has been used to derive pedotransfer functions (PTFs) to estimate the soil hydraulic parameters of Belgian soils. We developed new PTFs based on the Mualem-van Genuchten model, constraining m = 1-1/n and using fewer parameters. The goodness-of-fit was similar to the one originally obtained by Vereecken. We used a one-step procedure that allows direct quantification of the correlation matrix and the uncertainties of the estimated parameter values. The coefficients of the new PTFs were estimated using a global search algorithm and they were validated against independent data. The PTFs have a wider range of applicability since: (i) they allow the use of the closed-form solution of the unsaturated hydraulic conductivity in the Mualem-van Genuchten model; and (ii) they consider the effect of macroporosity. We determined that the hydraulic conductivity measured close to saturation could not be estimated based on the available estimators; however, the hydraulic conductivity in the matrix domain was predicted with high accuracy.
Bibliographic reference |
Weynants, Mélanie ; Vereecken, H. ; Javaux, Mathieu. Revisiting Vereecken Pedotransfer Functions: Introducing a Closed-Form Hydraulic Model. In: Vadose Zone Journal, Vol. 8, no. 1, p. 86-95 (2009) |
Permanent URL |
http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/35761 |