A scaling based estimation of soil unsaturated hydraulic properties at a field scale

This paper deals with the prediction of the soil water retention h(S) and the soil unsaturated hydraulic conductivity K(S) functions of a clay-loam soil at a field scale (1 ha) where the variable S represents water saturation. The Van Genuchten model and the corresponding Mualem-Van Genuchten model were used to predict h(S) and K(S) functions respectively. The field data (tensiometric and neutron probe measurements) used in this study were provided by the soil water balance (four neutron sites, 0.35 to 1.55 m soil layer) of a soybean crop over a 78 days growing season. The advantages of the scaling approach for describing the field variability of the h(S) function were confirmed. The scaling approach accounted for 73% of the field variability of the soil matrix potential. A simple procedure was proposed in order to predict the K(S) function using scaling theory. This was done by simultaneously applying a ``zero flux method' and ``deep flux method' to compute the soil water balance and fit the saturated hydraulic conductivitiy (K _sat), the only unknown parameter in K(S). Received: 15 November 1995