ESTABLISHING THE FIRST DATABASE OF SOIL HYDRAULIC PROPERTIES IN TUNISIA BASED ON PEDOTRANSFER FUNCTIONS
Abstract
DOI: 10.26471/cjees/2024/019/280
Soil hydraulic properties play a crucial role in the unsaturated soil water supply process. Currently, Tunisia lacks a database containing essential values for soil retention properties and soil saturated hydraulic conductivity. The main objective of this study is to create the inaugural soil hydraulic properties database through the utilization of open-access data and pedotransfer functions (PTFs). To achieve this goal, the harmonized world soil database (FAO) was employed to identify 752 measurement points across Tunisia. Subsequently, the soil texture, organic carbon content, and bulk density were determined at each point. These acquired values were then entered into the CalcPTF software to estimate the van Genuchten soil retention parameters. The calculation of soil saturated hydraulic conductivity was accomplished using two widely recognized pedotransfer functions (Saxton and Rosetta). The outcomes facilitated the creation of a catalog containing soil hydraulic parameter value for each soil texture. Significance of discrepancies between values obtained from the PTFs was assessed using a Tukey test. The spatial variability of each soil hydraulic property was studied using the simple kriging. In conclusion, the establishment of this significant soil hydraulic properties database holds diverse applications in agricultural, hydrological, and environmental studies in Tunisia.
- Soils
- Soil
- water
- retention
- Saturated
- hydraulic
- conductivity
- van
- Genuchten
- model
- Pedotransfer
- function
- Tunisia
Disclaimer/Publisher’s Note: The statements, opinions and data contained in all publications are solely those of the individual author(s) and contributor(s) and not of CJEES and/or the editor(s). CJEES and/or the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to people or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions or products referred to in the content.
© 2024 by the author(s). Licensee CJEES, Carpathian Association of Environment and Earth Sciences. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
How to cite
Checking for open citations...