Abstract
Infiltration process, which plays a paramount role in irrigation and drainage systems design, groundwater recharge and contamination evaluation, flood and drought management etc. is often controlled by several factors, among which land use/land cover (LULC) and soil physical properties are the prime factors. These factors lead to significant spatial variability of infiltration process, which poses a serious challenge for hydrologists and water managers. However, studies analyzing spatial variability and influence of both LULC and soil physical properties are scarce. To this end, grid-based infiltration experiments were carried out in a tropical sub-humid region of India to investigate spatial variability of infiltration characteristics, saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ksat) as well as to evaluate reliability of seven infiltration models in predicting infiltration behaviour and estimating Ksat. Additionally, uncertainty analysis was performed to quantify uncertainties associated with estimated Ksat for different LULC and soils. Results indicated that quasi-steady infiltration rate over the study area vary considerably with a majority of the area falling under ‘low’ and ‘medium’ infiltration categories. The infiltration process is greatly influenced by macro-pores and relatively low-permeable layers present at varying depths, typical features of lateritic vadose zones in tropical sub-humid regions, rather than its sole dependence on texture and LULC. Further, the Brutsaert model estimates Ksat with the highest accuracy and least uncertainty followed by Swartzendruber and Horton models. Except the Brutsaert model, other models are sensitive to a particular LULC. Overall, it is inferred that the Brutsaert and Swartzendruber models are robust and more reliable in predicting infiltration behavior and Ksat for the area. Findings of this study including quantification of spatial variability of important soil properties are useful for understanding detailed hydrological processes in the region and thereby, ensuring better planning and management of recurring floods and drought problems of the region.
Highlights
Groundwater serves as a vital source of water for drinking and agriculture purposes
As mentioned earlier, the infiltration process is controlled by several factors, among which, land use/land cover[23] and soil physical properties[24] are often considered as the prime factors affecting infiltration behavior and its spatial variability
Ksat values with respect to different soil textures and land use/land cover are shown in Figs. 11(a,b) and 12(a–d), respectively
Summary
Groundwater serves as a vital source of water for drinking and agriculture purposes. In India, over 65% of irrigation water and 85% of drinking water supplies come solely from groundwater resources[6]. While designing an irrigation system at a larger scale, irrigation engineers/water managers face serious difficulties mostly due to the greater spatial variability of infiltration process To overcome this problem, several geostatistical techniques, such as kriging, inverse distance weighting, spline, etc. A number of studies have been carried out to analyze the effects of land use/land cover change and land management practices on soil infiltration characteristics[25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33]. Sun et al.[32] analyzed the effect of land use change on the soil infiltration capacity using published infiltration data from different parts of China Their results showed a reduced rate of infiltration after converting the land cover from grassland, shrubland and forest to cropland. Among the Kostiakov-Lewis, Horton and Philip models, the Horton model performed the best
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