Determination of Spatial and Temporal Variability of Soil Hydraulic Conductivity for Urban Runoff Modelling
1
Faculty of Civil and Geodetic Engineering, University of Ljubljana, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
2
Faculty of Natural Sciences and Engineering, University of Ljubljana, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Water 2019, 11(5), 941; https://doi.org/10.3390/w11050941
Received: 2 April 2019 / Revised: 25 April 2019 / Accepted: 1 May 2019 / Published: 5 May 2019
(This article belongs to the Section Hydrology)
Soil hydraulic conductivity has a direct influence on infiltration rate, which is of great importance for modelling and design of surface runoff and stormwater control measures. In this study, three measuring techniques for determination of soil hydraulic conductivity were compared in an urban catchment in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Double ring (DRI) and dual head infiltrometer (DHI) were applied to measure saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ks) and mini disk infiltrometer (MDI) was applied to measure unsaturated hydraulic conductivity (K), which was recalculated in Ks in order to compare the results. Results showed significant differences between investigated techniques, namely DHI showed 6.8 times higher values of Ks in comparison to DRI. On the other hand, Ks values obtained by MDI and DRI exhibited the lowest difference. MDI measurements in 12 locations of the small plot pointed to the spatial variability of K ranging between 73%–89% as well as to temporal variability within a single location of 27%–99%. Additionally, a reduction of K caused by the effect of drought-induced water repellency was observed. Moreover, results indicate that hydrological models could be enhanced using different scenarios by employing a range of K values based on soil conditions.
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Keywords:
hydraulic conductivity; urban runoff modelling; mini disk infiltrometer; double ring infiltrometer; dual head infiltrometer
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MDPI and ACS Style
Radinja, M.; Vidmar, I.; Atanasova, N.; Mikoš, M.; Šraj, M. Determination of Spatial and Temporal Variability of Soil Hydraulic Conductivity for Urban Runoff Modelling. Water 2019, 11, 941.
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