Preprints
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2024-161
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2024-161
05 Jun 2024
 | 05 Jun 2024
Status: this discussion paper is a preprint. It has been under review for the journal Hydrology and Earth System Sciences (HESS). The manuscript was not accepted for further review after discussion.

Assessment of the Effect of Soil Amendments and A Three Phase Soil Water Retention Model

Yu Wang, Yirong Leng, Miklas Scholz, Nora Hatvani, and Vincent Uzomah

Abstract. Nowadays, using soil amendments to improve physical hydrological properties is popularly employed in agricultural engineering. This paper at first reports an experiment to compare the effect of two different soil amendments for their effect on soil water retention capacity. They two agents are the natural clay and a conditioning soil retainer. Soil water retention curve (SWRC) has been selected to quantify their effect on a benchmark pure sand soil in full range of water saturation, i.e. from fully saturated to nearly dry. Both the classic van Genuchten model and a novel three phase soil water retention model have been adopted to characterize the effect of the two soil amending agents on soil water retention capacity. The research results demonstrate that the clay has a significant enhancement on soil water retention at low content of clay and high soil water content range, however its effect reduces considerable with increasing clay content. Meanwhile the conditioning water retainer shows little effect at high soil water content range but has significant effect on soil water retention at low soil water content range. The results indicate the conditioning water retainer can help the reduction of the surface water evaporation and the water reservation underneath. The modelling has shown that the three-phase model is able to effectively represent the soil water retention curve in full range of soil water content, which provides a convenient tool to efficiently characterise the effect of conditioning water retainer. In addition, the three-phase model also provides the functional analysis and help understand the working mechanisms of the agents.

Publisher's note: Copernicus Publications remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims made in the text, published maps, institutional affiliations, or any other geographical representation in this preprint. The responsibility to include appropriate place names lies with the authors.
Yu Wang, Yirong Leng, Miklas Scholz, Nora Hatvani, and Vincent Uzomah

Status: closed

Comment types: AC – author | RC – referee | CC – community | EC – editor | CEC – chief editor | : Report abuse
  • RC1: 'Comment on hess-2024-161', Anonymous Referee #1, 21 Jun 2024
    • AC2: 'Reply on RC1', Yu Wang, 09 Sep 2024
  • RC2: 'Comment on hess-2024-161', Anonymous Referee #2, 18 Aug 2024
    • AC1: 'Reply on RC2', Yu Wang, 09 Sep 2024

Status: closed

Comment types: AC – author | RC – referee | CC – community | EC – editor | CEC – chief editor | : Report abuse
  • RC1: 'Comment on hess-2024-161', Anonymous Referee #1, 21 Jun 2024
    • AC2: 'Reply on RC1', Yu Wang, 09 Sep 2024
  • RC2: 'Comment on hess-2024-161', Anonymous Referee #2, 18 Aug 2024
    • AC1: 'Reply on RC2', Yu Wang, 09 Sep 2024
Yu Wang, Yirong Leng, Miklas Scholz, Nora Hatvani, and Vincent Uzomah
Yu Wang, Yirong Leng, Miklas Scholz, Nora Hatvani, and Vincent Uzomah

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Short summary
This paper reports research on the assessment of a natural solid and a synthesized liquid soil amendments for soil water retention capacity improvement. Soil water retention curves (SWRCs) have been selected to comparing their effects. Two approaches were adopted to obtain a full range of the SWRCs from fully saturated to nearly dry. A new mathematical model was proposed to represent the effect the amendments on the SWRCs and employed to characterize the WR concentration effect.