Pedotransfer Functions for the Estimation of Saturated Hydraulic Conductivity for Some Indian Sandy Soils

Abstract

Determination of the saturated hydraulic conductivity (k_s) is needed in many studies and applications related to irrigation, drainage, water movement and solute transport in the soil. Although many advances are made for direct measurements of k_s, they are usually time consuming and costly. Some attempts have been made to indirectly predict the saturated hydraulic conductivity from the more easily or readily available basic soil properties. The objective of this study was to develop and validate Pedotransfer Functions (PTFs) for estimation of saturated hydraulic conductivity using multiple non-linear regression technique. One hundred and one soil samples were collected from agricultural and forest soils at different depths, at different locations in the Pavanje River basin that lies in the southern coastal region of Karnataka, India. Saturated hydraulic conductivity was measured, by variable falling head method through Permeameter in the laboratory. Prediction accuracies were evaluated using coefficient of determination, root mean square error, mean error, geometric mean error ratio and geometric standard deviation of the error ratio between measured and predicted values. The results show that, the PTFs for the estimation of saturated hydraulic conductivity could be used appropriately for the soils with loamy sand and sandy loam textures falling in this area of the coastal region of southern India.