Soil Classification: A New Approach for Grouping Soils Using Unsaturated Hydraulic Conductivity Data

Abstract

AbstractGrouping soils based on similarities in their textural, taxonomic, and/or structural properties has broad applications to pedology, hydrology, and soil science. In this study, we present a new approach for classifying soils using hydraulic conductivity data. We apply concepts from critical path analysis and calculate critical pore sizes at various water saturations from the unsaturated hydraulic conductivity curves. Soils with similar critical pore size at the same effective water saturation are then grouped into the same class. To demonstrate the practical application of the proposed soil classification method, we use 102 samples including nine soil textures from the UNSODA database. Applying a curve clustering method, we find eight different soil classes within the studied data set.