Comparison of Spatial Variability of Infiltration Properties at Two Sites in Konza Prairie of East-Central Kansas
Publication: Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 1, Issue 3
Abstract
The spatial variability of soil hydraulic properties that govern infiltration were investigated at two sites in the Konza Prairie Research Area in Kansas. One site was a pristine prairie site with native grass, and the other was a continuously cropped agricultural site from which wheat had been recently harvested. Soil hydraulic properties studied were saturated hydraulic conductivity, matrix flux potential, soil sorptivity, and pore-size distribution parameter. Spatial variability was assessed through semivariograms that were constructed based on 37 measurements at each site using the Guelph Permeameter. Correlation lengths of the infiltration properties varied from 1 to 4 m. Sorptivity was found to be lognormally distributed. The spatial structure of infiltration properties at both sites exhibited pseudoperiodicity and a hole-effect variogram model was used. Infiltration properties at the agricultural site indicated multiple peaks in the variograms. Implications of these results on computing areally averaged infiltration at the two sites are discussed.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
1.
ASCE Task Committee on Geostatistical Techniques.(1990a). “Review of geostatistics in geohydrology. I: basic concepts.”J. Hydr. Engrg., ASCE, 116(5), 612–632.
2.
ASCE Task Committee on Geostatistical Techniques.(1990b). “Review of geostatistics in geohydrology. I: applications.”J. Hydr. Engrg., ASCE, 116(5), 633–658.
3.
Bear, J. (1979). Hydraulics of groundwater . McGraw-Hill, Inc., New York, N.Y.
4.
Bresler, E., and Dagan, G.(1983). “Unsaturated flow in spatially variable field soils. 2: application of water flow models to various fields.”Water Resour. Res., 19(2), 421–428.
5.
Brownie, C., Bowman, D. T., and Burton, J. W.(1993). “Estimating spatial variation in analysis of data from yield trials: a comparison of methods.”Agronomy J., 85, 1244–1253.
6.
Chen, Z. Q., Govindaragu, R. S., and Kavvas, M. L.(1994). “Spatial averaging of unsaturated flow equations under infiltration conditions over areally heterogeneous fields. 1: development of models.”Water Resour. Res., 30(3), 523–533.
7.
Clennan, B. (1995). “Developing model parameters for solution of Richards equation for two soil profiles,” MS thesis, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kans.
8.
David, M. (1977). Geostatistical ore reserve estimation . Elsevier, New York, N.Y.
9.
de Marsily, G. (1986). Quantitative hydrogeology: groundwater hydrology for engineers, G. de Marsily, translators, Academic Press, Inc., New York, N.Y. (Chapter 11), 284–337.
10.
Elrick, D. E., and Reynolds, W. D.(1992). “Methods for analyzing constant-head well permeameter data.”Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J., 56(1), 320–323.
11.
Elrick, D. E., Reynolds, W. D., and Tan, K. A. (1988). “A new analysis for the constant head well permeameter technique.”Validation of Flow and Transport Models for the Unsaturated Zone: Conference Proceedings; Res. Rep. 88-SS-04, P. J. Wierenga and D. Bachelet, eds., Dept. of Agronomy and Horticulture, New Mexico State Univ., Las Cruces, N.M., 88–95.
12.
Englund, E., and Sparks, A. (1991). “GEO-EAS 1.2.1, geostatistical environmental software, user's guide.”Rep., EPA 600/8-91/008, Envir. Protection Agency, Las Vegas, Nev.
13.
Gardner, W. R.(1958). “Some steady-state solutions of the unsaturated moisture flow equation with applications to evaporation from a water table.”Soil Sci., 85, 228–232.
14.
Govindaraju, R. S., Or, D., Kavvas, M. L., Rolston, D. E., and Biggar, J. (1992). “Error analyses of simplified unsaturated flow models under large uncertainty in hydraulic properties.”Water Resour. Res., 28(11).
15.
Greenholtz, D. E., Yeh, T.-C. J., and Nash, M. S. B.(1988). “Geostatistical analysis of soil hydrologic properties in a field plot.”J. Contaminant Hydrol., 3, 227–250.
16.
Grondona, M. O., and Cressie, N.(1991). “Using spatial considerations in the analysis of experiments.”Technometrics, 33(4), 381–392.
17.
Gupta, V. K., and Bhattacharya, R. N.(1986). “Solute dispersion in multidimensional periodic saturated porous media.”Water Resour. Res., 22(2), 156–164.
18.
Guven, D., and Fred, M. J.(1986). “Deterministic and stochastic analysis of dispersion in an unbounded stratified porous medium.”Water Resour. Res., 22(11), 1565–1574.
19.
Journel, A. G., and Huijbregts, J. Ch. (1978). Mining geostatistics . Academic Press, New York, N.Y.
20.
Kitanidis, P. K. (1993). “Geostatistics.”Handbook of hydrology, D. Maidment, ed., McGraw-Hill, New York, N.Y., 20.1–20.39.
21.
Maller, R. A., and Sharma, M. L.(1981). “An analysis of areal infiltration considering spatial variability.”J. Hydrol., 52, 25–37.
22.
Mantaglou, A., and Gelhar, L. W.(1987). “Stochastic modeling of large-scale transient unsaturated flow systems.”Water Resour. Res., 23(1), 37–46.
23.
Miller, R. D., and Bresler, E.(1977). “A quick method for estimating soil water diffusivity functions.”Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J., 41, 1020–1022.
24.
Mohanty, B. P., Kanwar, R. S., and Horton, R.(1991). “A robust-resistant approach to interpret spatial behavior of saturated conductivity of a glacial till soil under no-tillage system.”Water Resour. Res., 27(11), 2979–2992.
25.
Mulla, D. J., Bhatti, A. U., and Kunkel, R. (1990). “Methods for removing spatial variability from field research trials.”Advances in soil science, Vol. 13, B. A. Stewart, ed., Springer-Verlag, New York, N.Y., 201–213.
26.
Nielsen, D. R., Biggar, J. W., and Erh, K. T.(1973). “Spatial variability of field-measured soil-water properties.”Hilgardia, 42(7), 215–259.
27.
Philip, J. R. (1969). “Theory of infiltration.”Adv. in Hydrosci., 5, 215– 296.
28.
Philip, J. R.(1973). “On solving the unsaturated flow equation. 1: the flux-concentration relation.”Soil Sci., 116, 328–335.
29.
Philip, J. R.(1985). “Approximate analysis of the borehole permeameter in unsaturated soil.”Water Resour. Res., 21, 1025–1033.
30.
Philip, J. R.(1987). “The infiltration joining problem.”Water Resour. Res., 23(12), 2239–2245.
31.
Rao, P. V., Rao, P. S. C., Davidson, J. M., and Hammond, L. C.(1979). “Use of goodness-of-fit tests for characterizing the spatial variability of soil properties.”Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J., 43, 274–278.
32.
Reynolds, W. D., and Elrick, D. E.(1985). “In situ measurement of field-saturated hydraulic conductivity, sorptivity, and the α-parameter using the Guelph permeameter.”Soil Sci., 140(4), 292–302.
33.
Reynolds, W. D., and Elrick, D. E.(1986). “A method for simultaneous in-situ measurements in the vadose zone of field saturated hydraulic conductivity, sorptivity, and the conductivity pressure head relationship.”Ground Water Monitoring Rev., 6, 84–89.
34.
Reynolds, W. D., and Elrick, D. E.(1987). “A laboratory and numerical assessment of the Guelph permeameter method.”Soil Sci., 144(4), 282–299.
35.
Reynolds, W. D., Elrick, D. E., and Topp, G. C.(1983). “A reexamination of the constant head well permeameter method for measuring saturated hydraulic conductivity above the water table.”Soil Sci., 136, 250–268.
36.
Reynolds, W. D., Elrick, D. E., and Clothier, B. E.(1985). “The constant head well permeameter: effect of unsaturated flow.”Soil Sci., 139(2), 172–180.
37.
Russo, D.(1984). “A geostatistical approach to solute transport in heterogeneous fields and its application to salinity management.”Water Resour. Res., 20(9), 1260–1270.
38.
Russo, D., and Bresler, E.(1982). “Soil hydraulic properties as stochastic processes. II: errors of estimates in a heterogeneous field.”Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J., 46, 20–26.
39.
Scharf, P. C., and Alley, M. A.(1993). “Accounting for spatial yield variability in field experiments increases statistical power.”Agronomy J., 85(6), 1254–1256.
40.
Trangmar, B. B., Yost, R. S., and Uehara, G.(1985). “Application of geostatistics to spatial studies of soil properties.”Adv. in Agronomy, 38, 45–94.
41.
Unlu, K., Kavvas, M. L., and Nielsen, D. R.(1989). “Stochastic analysis of field measured unsaturated hydraulic conductivity.”Water Resour. Res., 25(12), 2511–2519.
42.
U.S. Department of Agriculture. (USDA). (1975). “Soil survey of Riley County and part of Geary County, Kansas.”Rep., Soil Conservation Service (SCS), in cooperation with Kansas Agric. Experiment Station, Washington, D.C.
43.
van Es, H. M., and van Es, C. L.(1993). “Spatial nature of randomization and its effect on the outcome of field experiments.”Agronomy J., 85, 420–428.
44.
Warrick, A. W., and Myers, D. E. (1987). “Optimization of sampling locations for variogram calculations.”Water Resour. Res., 23(3), 496– 500.
45.
Warrick, A. W., and Nielsen, D. R. (1980). “Spatial variability of soil physical properties in the field.”Applications of soil physics, D. Hillel, ed., Academic Press, New York, N.Y., 319–344.
46.
Webster, R. (1985). “Quantitative spatial analysis of soil in the field.”Advances in soil science, Vol. 3, B. A. Stewart, ed., Springer-Verlag, New York, N.Y., 1–70.
47.
White, I., and Sully, M. J.(1987). “Macroscopic and microscopic capillary length and time scales from field infiltration.”Water Resour. Res., 23(8), 1514–1522.
48.
Yeh, T. C. J., Gelhar, L. W., and Gutjahr, A. L.(1985). “Stochastic analysis of unsaturated flow in heterogeneous soils. 2: statistically anisotropic media with variable α.”Water Resour. Res., 21(4), 457–464.
49.
Zangar, C. N. (1953). “Theory and problems of water percolation.”Engrg. Monograph No. 8, U.S. Dept. of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation, Denver, Colo.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 1 • Issue 3 • July 1996
Pages: 131 - 138
Copyright
Copyright © 1996 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Published online: Jul 1, 1996
Published in print: Jul 1996
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.