Field Data from a Capillary Barrier and Model Predictions with UNSAT-H
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 125, Issue 6
Abstract
Water balance data are presented from a capillary barrier test section located on the final cover of a municipal solid waste landfill in a semiarid region (E. Wenatchee, Washington, U.S.). Water balance and meteorological data were collected from November 1992 to August 1995. Estimates of the water balance were made using the program UNSAT-H, with input consisting of meteorological data, soil properties, and vegetative information. Estimates of evapotranspiration and soil-water storage by UNSAT-H agree reasonably well with the field data. Peak soil-water storage was underestimated during the winter and evapotranspiration was overestimated in late winter. Water contents were estimated reasonably, although the changes in water content of the sand obtained from UNSAT-H were not as large as, and occurred less quickly than, that in the field. Percolation was generally overestimated, with the greatest overestimation occurring during Winter 1993, which had substantial snowfall. Surface runoff was underestimated; no runoff was obtained from UNSAT-H, whereas 7.4 cm of runoff was measured in the field. The overestimates in percolation appear to be closely related to underestimates in runoff and extra storage in the sand layer caused by the geocomposite drain used in the test section. Snowmelt, freezing of the soil surface, and hysteresis in soil hydraulic properties also appear to have had an effect on the differences between estimated and measured water balances.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
1.
Allison, G., Gee, G., and Tyler, S. ( 1994). “Vadose-zone techniques for estimating groundwater recharge in arid and semiarid regions.” Soil Sci. Soc. of Am. J., 58, 6–14.
2.
Benson, C., Khire, M., and Bosscher, P. ( 1993). “Final cover hydrologic evaluation, phase II-final report.” Envir. Geotech. Rep. 93-4, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, Wisc.
3.
Benson, C., Bosscher, P., Lane, D., and Pliska, R. ( 1994). “Monitoring system for hydrologic evaluation of landfill final covers.” Geotech. Testing J., 17(2), 138–149.
4.
Benson, C., and Khire, M. ( 1995). “Earthen final covers for landfills in semi-arid and arid climates.” Landfill Closures, GSP No. 53, R. Dunn and U. Singh, eds., ASCE, Reston, Va., 201–218.
5.
Benson, C., Olson, M., and Bergstrom, W. ( 1996). Temperatures of an insulated landfill liner, Transp. Res. Rec., Transportation Research Board, Washington, D.C., No. 1534, 24–31.
6.
Benson, C., and Gribb, M. ( 1997). “Measuring unsaturated hydraulic conductivity in the laboratory and field.” Unsaturated Soil Engineering Practice, GSP No. 68, S. Houston and D. Fredlund, eds., ASCE, Reston, Va., 113–168.
7.
Benson, C., and Wang, X. ( 1998). “Soil water characteristic curves for solid waste.” Envir. Geotech. Rep. 98-13, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, Wisc.
8.
Benson, C., Albrecht, B., Motan, E., and Querio, A. ( 1998). “Equivalency assessment for an alternative final cover proposed for the Greater Wenatchee Regional Landfill and Recycling Center.” Envir. Geotech. Rep. 98-6, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, Wisc.
9.
Chudnovskii, A. ( 1966). “Plants and light. I. Radiant energy.” Fundamentals of Agrophysics, Israel Program for Scientific Translations, Jerusalem, 1–51.
10.
Doorenbos, J., and Pruitt, W. ( 1977). “Guidelines for predicting crop water requirements.” FAO Irrigation Paper No. 24, 2nd Ed., Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, Rome, 1–107.
11.
Dwyer, S. ( 1997). “Cost comparisons of alternative landfill final covers, Proc., Int. Contain. Tech. Conf., U.S. Dept. of Energy, Germantown, Md., 400–406. Fayer, M., and Jones, T. (1990). Unsaturated soil-water and heat flow model, ver. 2.0. Pacific Northwest Laboratory, Richland, Wash.
12.
Fayer, M., Rockhold, M., and Campbell, M. ( 1992). “Hydrologic modeling of protective barriers: Comparison of field data and simulation results.” Soil Sci. Soc. of Am. J., 56, 690–700.
13.
Fayer, M., Gee, G., Rockhold, M., Freshley, M., and Walters, T. ( 1996). “Estimating recharge rates for a groundwater model using a GIS.” J. Envir. Quality, 25, 510–518.
14.
Fleenor, W., and King, I. ( 1995). “Identifying limitations on use of the HELP model.” Landfill Closures, GSP No. 53, R. Dunn and U. Singh, eds., ASCE, Reston, Va., 121–138.
15.
Gee, G., and Hillel, D. ( 1988). “Groundwater recharge in arid regions: Review and critique of estimation methods.” J. of Hydrol. Processes, 2, 255–266.
16.
Gee, G., Fayer, M., Rockhold, M., and Campbell, M. ( 1992). “Variations in recharge at the Hanford site.” Northwest Sci., 66, 237–250.
17.
Gee, G. et al. ( 1993). Field Lysimeter Test Facility Status Rep. IV: FY 1993, Pacific Northwest Laboratory, Richland, Wash.
18.
Gee, G., Wierenga, P., Andraski, B., Young, M., Fayer, M., and Rockhold, M. ( 1994). “Variations in water balance and recharge potential at three western sites.” Soil Sci. Soc. of Am. J., 58, 63–72.
19.
Gee, G., Ward, A., and Fayer, M. ( 1997). “Surface barrier research at the Hanford site.” Proc., Intl. Contain. Tech. Conf., U.S. Dept. of Energy, Germantown, Md., 305–311.
20.
Gee, G., and Ward, A. ( 1997). “Still in quest of the perfect cap.” Proc., Landfill Capping in the Semi-Arid West: Problems, Perspectives, and Solutions, Envir. Sci. and Res. Found., Idaho Falls, Idaho, 145–164.
21.
Hakonson, T., Lane, L., and Springer, E. ( 1992). “Biotic and abiotic processes.” Deserts as Dumps, the Disposal of Hazardous Materials in Arid Ecosystems, C. Reith and B. Thomson, eds., University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, N.M.
22.
Hakonson, T. et al. ( 1994). “Hydrologic evaluation of four landfill cover designs at Hill Air Force Base, Utah.” LAUR-93-4469, Dept. of Energy Mixed Waste Landfill Integrated Demonstration, Sandia National Laboratory, Los Alamos, N.M.
23.
Haverkamp, R., Valcin, M., Touma, J., Wierenga, P., and Vauchaud, G. ( 1977). “A comparison of numerical simulation models for onedimensional infiltration.” Soil Sci. Soc. of Am. J., 41, 285–294.
24.
Hillel, D. ( 1980). Fundamentals of Soil Physics . Academic Press, San Diego.
25.
Khire, M., Benson, C., and Bosscher, P. ( 1994). “Final cover hydrologic evaluation—phase III.” Envir. Geotech. Rep. 94-4, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, Wisc.
26.
Khire, M. ( 1995). “Field hydrology and water balance modeling of earthen final covers for waste containment,” PhD dissertation, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, Wisc.
27.
Khire, M., Benson, C., and Bosscher, P. (1997). “Water balance modeling of earthen final covers at humid and semi-arid sites.”J. of Geotech. and Geoenvir. Engrg., ASCE, 123(8), 744–754.
28.
Khire, M., Benson, C., and Bosscher, P. ( 1998). “Capillary barriers in semi-arid and arid climates: Design variables and the water balance.” Envir. Geotechnics Rep. 98-14, Dept. of Civ. and Envir. Engrg., University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis.
29.
Kustas, W., Rango, A., and Uijlenhoet, R. ( 1994). “A simple energy budget algorithm for the snowmelt runoff model,” Water Resources Research, 30(5), 1515–1527.
30.
Landeen, D. ( 1994). “The influence of small-mammal burrowing activity on water storage at the Hanford site.” In Situ Remediation: Scientific Basis for Current and Future Technologies, G. Gee and N. Wing, eds., Battelle, Columbus, Ohio, 523–543.
31.
Link, S., Wing, N., and Gee, G. ( 1995). “The development of permanent isolation barriers for buried wastes in cool deserts: Hanford, Washington.” J. of Arid Land Studies, 4, 215–224.
32.
Litgotke, D. ( 1994). “Control of eolian soil erosion from waste site surface barriers.” In Situ Remediation: Scientific Basis for Current and Future Technologies, G. Gee and N. Wing, eds., Battelle, Columbus, Ohio, 545–559.
33.
Meerdink, J., Benson, C., and Khire, M. (1996). “Unsaturated hydraulic conductivity of two compacted barrier soils.”J. of Geotech. Engrg., ASCE, 122(7), 565–576.
34.
Meyer, P., Rockhold, M., Nichols, W., and Gee, G. ( 1996). Hydrologic evaluation methodology for estimating water movement through the unsaturated zone at commercial low-level radioactive waste disposal sites . Pacific Northwest Laboratory, Richland, Wash.
35.
Morris, C., and Stormont, J. ( 1996). “Design of capillary barriers for waste site containment.” Proc., 3rd Int. Sym. on Envir. Geotechnol., H-Y Fang and H. Inyang, eds., Technomic, Lancaster, Pa., 1, 513–522.
36.
Morris, C., and Stormont, J. (1997). “Capillary barriers and subtitle D covers: Estimating equivalency.”J. Envir. Engrg., ASCE, 123(1), 3(1), 3–10.
37.
Mualem, Y. ( 1976). “A new model for predicting the hydraulic conductivity of unsaturated porous media.” Water Resour. Res., 12, 513–522.
38.
Nativ, R. ( 1991). “Radioactive waste isolation in arid zones.” J. Arid Envir., 20, 129–140.
39.
Nichols, W. ( 1991). Comparative simulations of a two-layer landfill barrier using the HELP v. 2.0 and UNSAT-H v. 2.0 codes . Pacific Northwest Laboratory, Richland, Wash.
40.
Nyhan, J., Hakonson, T., and Drennon, B. ( 1990). “A water balance study of two landfill cover designs for semiarid regions.” J. Envir. Quality, 19, 281–288.
41.
Nyhan, J., Schofield, T., and Starmer, R. ( 1997). “A water balance study of four landfill cover designs varying in slope for semiarid regions.” J. of Envir. Quality, 26, 1385–1392.
42.
Nyhan, J., Langhorst, G., Martin, C., Martinez, J., and Schofield, T. ( 1993). “Hydrologic studies of multilayered landfill closure of waste landfills at Los Alamos.” Proc., 1993 DOE Envir. Remediation Conf., Department of Energy, Washington, D.C.
43.
Schroeder, P., Lloyd, C., and Zappi, P. ( 1994). The hydrologic evaluation of landfill performance (HELP) model, user's guide for version 3.0 . USEPA, Cincinnati, Ohio.
44.
Stormont, J., and Anderson, C. (1998). “Capillary barrier effect from an underlying coarser layer.”J. Geotech. and Geoenvir. Engrg., ASCE, in press.
45.
Stormont, J. ( 1995). “The performance of two capillary barriers during constant infiltration.” Landfill Closures, GSP No. 53, J. Dunn and U. Singh, eds., ASCE, Reston, Va., 77–92.
46.
Stormont, J., and Morris, C. (1997). “Unsaturated drainage layers for diversion of infiltrating water.”J. Irrig. and Drain. Engrg., ASCE, 123(5), 364–366.
47.
Stormont, J., and Morris, C. (1998). “Method to estimate water storage capacity of capillary barriers.”J. of Geotech. and Geoenvir. Engrg., ASCE, 124(4), 297–302.
48.
Tanner, C. ( 1967). “Measurement of evapotranspiration.” Irrigation of Agricultural Lands, American Society of Agronomy, Madison, Wisc., 534–574.
49.
van Genuchten, M. ( 1980). “A closed-form equation for predicting the hydraulic conductivity of unsaturated soils.” Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J., 44, 892–898.
50.
Ward, A., and Gee, G. ( 1997). “Performance evaluation of a field-scale surface barrier.” J. Envir. Quality, 26, 694–705.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 125 • Issue 6 • June 1999
Pages: 518 - 527
History
Received: Sep 2, 1997
Published online: Jun 1, 1999
Published in print: Jun 1999
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.