J. Stolte et al., COMPARISON OF 6 METHODS TO DETERMINE UNSATURATED SOIL HYDRAULIC CONDUCTIVITY, Soil Science Society of America journal, 58(6), 1994, pp. 1596-1603
Knowledge of soil hydraulic properties is required for soil-water how
models. Although many studies of individual methods exist, comparisons
of methods are uncommon. Therefore, we compared application ranges an
d results for six laboratory methods for determining hydraulic conduct
ivity or diffusivity on eolian sand, eolian silt loam, marine sandy lo
am, and fluviatile silt loam. The methods, hot air, sorptivity, crust,
drip infiltrometer, Wind's evaporation, and one-step outflow, fall in
to three groups: (i) those that only yield a conductivity curve; (ii)
those that yield a simultaneous estimate of conductivity, diffusivity,
water content, and pressure head; and (iii) those that yield a diffus
ivity curve. Diffusivities were converted to conductivities with a wat
er retention curve. One main difference between the methods was the pr
essure head-water content range. Despite the large differences between
the methods, the results for the first two groups tended to be simila
r. The results of the third group did not match well with those of the
first two. It proved difficult to compare these methods correctly due
to hysteresis.