Assessment of two parameter estimation techniques for the estimation of soil hydraulic characteristics

Abstract

When Richard's flow equation was solved numerically two parameter estimation procedures were assessed for their applicability in the estimation of parameters of soil hydraulic characteristics, the water retention and hydraulic conductivity functions, and saturated hydraulic conductivity. The estimation procedures assessed were Taylor expansion and Marquardt (1963). The model simulated soil water content and pressure head profiles, obtained with the optimized estimates for the parameters from either method, agreed close with the corresponding measured profiles. Similar trends were observed for the water retention curve. The unsaturated hydraulic conductivities calculated, using the measured values in water content and pressure head agreed with those obtained using the established hydraulic conductivity functions. The results show that the techniques developed in this study were satisfactory to predict sufficiently accurate the hydraulic characteristics required to describe unsaturated flow of water in soil. The techniques appear promising, becuase the auxilliary information, soil water content, required for the estimation of hydraulic characteristics was minimal and relatively easy to collect.