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Clapp and Hornberger (1978) representative soil hydraulic parameters by texture.

Source

Clapp, R. B., & Hornberger, G. M. (1978). Empirical equations for some soil hydraulic properties. Water Resources Research.

Scope

Territory: United States

Dataset: Desorption data reported by Holtan et al. (1968) for soils collected at 34 United States localities; 1,446 soils remained from an initial set of more than 1,800 after the exclusions described by the paper.

Functions

calc_ptf_clapp1978

Return representative soil hydraulic parameters for a USDA texture class.

Status: implemented

Prediction target: Representative moisture-characteristic exponent, saturation suction, wetting-front suction, saturated water content, saturated hydraulic conductivity, and sorptivity for a soil textural class.

Models: \(h(\theta)\) — Power-curve moisture characteristic with a parabolic gradual-air-entry section near saturation; \(k(h)\) — Campbell relative-conductivity power relation

Inputs

Name Type Unit Domain Description
soil_texture UsdaTextureClass USDA soil textural class used to select a row of Table 2.

Outputs

Name Unit Domain Description
b 1 value > 0 Mean exponent of the moisture-characteristic power curve.
saturation_suction cm value > 0 Representative saturation suction, calculated as the antilog of the mean logarithm of fitted saturation-suction values.
wetting_front_suction cm value > 0 Representative Green-Ampt wetting-front suction.
saturated_water_content 1 0 < value < 1 Mean saturated volumetric water content, taken as total porosity.
saturated_hydraulic_conductivity cm/min value > 0 Mean saturated hydraulic conductivity reported by Li et al. (1976).
sorptivity cm/min^(1/2) value > 0 Representative sorptivity for the paper's single initial moisture deficit corresponding to 500-cm initial suction.

Note

The representative wetting-front suctions use an inflection wetness of 0.92 to model gradual air entry near saturation.

Note

The sorptivity values use the average saturated hydraulic conductivities reported by Li et al. (1976) and one initial moisture deficit at 500-cm suction.

Warning

The paper states that these unverified average values should not be used blindly because saturation suction varies substantially within texture classes.

Warning

Sorptivity values must be treated cautiously because the conductivity averages may not represent the same average soils as the other parameters.