Sigmoidal water retention function with improved behaviour in dry and wet soils

de Rooij, Gerrit Huibert; Mai, Juliane; Madi, Raneem

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-983-2021

Articles | Volume 25, issue 2

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-983-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-983-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 25, issue 2

Technical note

|

25 Feb 2021

Technical note |

| 25 Feb 2021

Sigmoidal water retention function with improved behaviour in dry and wet soils

Gerrit Huibert de Rooij, Juliane Mai, and Raneem Madi

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-983-2021-supplement

Data sets

UNSODA Database National Agricultural Library https://data.nal.usda.gov/dataset/unsoda-20-unsaturated-soil-hydraulic-database-database-and-program-indirect-methods-estimating-unsaturated-hydraulic-properties_134

Short summary

The way soils capture infiltrating water affects crops and natural vegetation and groundwater recharge. This retention of soil water is described by a mathematical function that covers all water contents from very dry to water saturated. We combined two existing lines of research to improve the behaviour of a popular function for very dry and very wet conditions. Our new function could handle a wider range of conditions than earlier curves. We provide fits to a wide range of soils.