Abstract
In many geotechnical and hydrological studies, there is a significant increase in the field investigation of hydraulic properties in unsaturated zone. Hydraulic conductivity is one such parameter that is used as an input in many physically based models. As hydraulic conductivity is a highly spatially variable property, estimating the representative values are required for any modeling processes. The present study aimed at determining the saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ks) at two different land covers by Guelph permeameter in the field, permeability tests in the lab, and the Rawls–Brakensiek regression equation as a function of textural properties of the soil. Also, the study involves the comparison of the Ks values measured from field, lab, and Rawls regression equation. The results of this study indicate that, although there is slight variability in the results of hydraulic conductivity measurement methods, the graphical plots show a good correlation between the field, lab, and estimated values by Rawls equation.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Bibliography
Bagarello V, Giordano G (1999) Comparison of procedures to estimate steady flow rate in field measurement of saturated hydraulic conductivity by the Guelph permeameter method. J Agric Eng Res 74(1):63–71
Bouwer H, Jackson RD (n.d.) Determining soil properties 58
Elrick DE, Reynolds WD, Tan KA (1989) Hydraulic conductivity measurements in the unsaturated zone using improved well analyses. Groundwater Monit Rem 9(3):184–193
Elrick DE, Reynolds WD (1992) Methods for analyzing constant-head well permeameter data. Soil Sci Soc Am J 56:320–323. https://doi.org/10.2136/sssaj1992.03615995005600010052x
Feki M, Ravazzani G, Barontini S, Ceppi A, Mancini M (2020) A comparative assessment of the estimates of the saturated hydraulic conductivity of two anthropogenic soils and their impact on hydrological model simulations. Soil Water Res. 15:135–147. https://doi.org/10.17221/33/2019-SWR
Gallichand J, Madramootoo CA, Emight P, Barrington SF (1990) An evaluation of the Guelph permeameter for measuring saturated hydraulic conductivity. Trans ASAE 33:1179–1184. https://doi.org/10.13031/2013.31455
Gribb MM, Kodesova R, Ordway SE (2004) Comparison of soil hydraulic property measurement methods. J Geotec. Geoenviron Eng 130:1084–1095. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)1090-0241(2004)130:10(1084)
Jačka L, Pavlásek J, Kuráž V, Pech P (2014) A comparison of three measuring methods for estimating the saturated hydraulic conductivity in the shallow subsurface layer of mountain podzols. Geoderma 219–220:82–88
Kanwar RS, Rizvi HA, Ahmed M, Horton R, Marley SJ (1990) Measurement of field-saturated hydraulic conductivity by using Guelph and velocity permeameters. Trans ASAE 32:1885
Klute A, Dirksen C (1986) Hydraulic conductivity and diffusivity: laboratory methods. In: Klute A (ed) SSSA book series. Soil science society of America, American Society of Agronomy, Madison, WI, USA, pp 687–734. https://doi.org/10.2136/sssabookser5.1.2ed.c28
Lee DM, Elrick DE, Reynolds WD, Clothier BE (1985) A comparison of three field methods for measuring saturated hydraulic conductivity. Can J Soil Sci 65:563–573. https://doi.org/10.4141/cjss85-060
Mahapatra S, Jha MK (2019) On the estimation of hydraulic conductivity of layered vadose zones with limited data availability. J Earth Syst Sci 128:75. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12040-019-1101-1
Rawls WJ, Brakensiek DL (1989) Estimation of soil water retention and hydraulic properties. In: Morel-Seytoux HJ (ed) Unsaturated flow in hydrologic modeling. Springer Netherlands, Dordrecht, pp 275–300. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-2352-2_10
Reynolds WD, Elrick DE (1985) In-situ measurement of field-saturated hydraulic hydraulic conductivity, sorptivity and the alpha-parameter using the Guelph permeameter. Soil Sci 140(4):292–302
Soil moisture Equipment Corporation (1987) 2800KI operating instructions. Soil moisture Equipment Corp., Santa Barbara, CA, USA
Zhang ZF, Groenevelt PH, Parkin GW (1998) The well-shape factor for the measurement of soil hydraulic properties using the Guelph permeameter. Soil Tillage Res 49:219–221. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0167-1987(98)00174-3
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this paper
Cite this paper
Vasanth Kumar, B.M., Chandramouli, P.N. (2023). Determination of Saturated Hydraulic Conductivity in Unsaturated Zone from Field and Lab Methods. In: Nandagiri, L., Narasimhan, M.C., Marathe, S. (eds) Recent Advances in Civil Engineering. CTCS 2021. Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering, vol 256. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-1862-9_19
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-1862-9_19
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-19-1861-2
Online ISBN: 978-981-19-1862-9
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)