Evaluation of regional soil water retention (SWR) characteristics for soils in Central India

Abstract

The present study has been carried out to explore the possibility of development of regional oedotransfer (PTF) and analytical models for soils in two adjoining commands of Central India. The soil water retention at different suction heads for soil samples from seventeen sites were determined using pressure plate apparatus and fitted by PTFs and analytical models and the performance were evaluated using different goodness of fit criteria. The regional PTF and analytical based models have been proposed in the study to compute soil water retention using soil texture and other physical properties for irrigation scheduling. The soils in the study area can be divided into two broad groups where PTF based model suggested by Rawls and Brakensiek, 1985(P-BC-RB) for SG-1 and PTF by Saxton et al., 1986 (P-BC-SEL) for SG-2 soils can be used. Both soil groups can be modelled analytically using Durner, 1994 model with different sets of parameters.