Abstract
Unsaturated hydraulic conductivity (K (h)) is important soil-physical characteristic, especially by determination of infiltration intensity, irrigation regime, drainage proposals, simulation of pollutants and other agricultural and hydrological processes. K(h) is determined by soil structure and texture. Measurements are therefore considerably influenced by the heterogeneity of the soil composition. The disc infiltrometer has become a popular apparatus for measuring in situ K(h) of the soil at some prescribed potential. A number of different methods have been proposed for calculating K(h) using the flow rate (Q(t)), from the infiltration disc with different radius. Measurements of Q(t) on a Sekule sandy soil were made using minidisc infiltrometer (METER Group Inc., Pullman W.A.) with radius of 22,5 mm and disc tension infiltrometer (Eijkelkamp Soil and Water B.V.) with radius of 100 mm. Measurements were made at potentials of –20 mm with both devices. K(h) values were calculated using 2 different methods. The aim of our work was to test two K(h) measuring devices with different size of infiltration ring in order to check how the differences affects K(h) determination. This would give an idea which method would be more appropriate to use regarding the time-consume, effort and better characterization of the soil heterogeneity. Statistically significant difference (p<0.05) was found when applying both methodologies. However, there is still a need to understand how both methodologies influence the variation of the parameters.
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