Comparison of Methods for Saturated Hydraulic Conductivity Determination: Field, Laboratory and Empirical Measurements (A Pre-view)

Abstract

Hydraulic conductivity is the single most important hydraulic parameter for flow and transport-related phenomena in soil, but there is concern arising from the suitability, efficiency and ease of the different measuring methods under different conditions. The various methods of determining saturated hydraulic conductivity; the field methods, laboratory methods and empirical formulae were reviewed so as to ascertain the suitability of the various methods and their acceptability based on literature. This review shows that all the methods have their individual merits and demerits. Most researchers however, prefer the use of empirical data to data from both field and laboratory conditions; and that the direct measurement of soil saturated hydraulic conductivity is very difficult, laborious, and costly under field or laboratory conditions, and even often impractical for many hydrologic analyses. However, it has been agreed that the estimation of soil saturated hydraulic conductivity using empirical formulae depends on the local soil maps and published data which often has limited accuracy and range in many cases. This is the main reason why many soil scientists and engineers have tried to develop models to determine soil saturated hydraulic conductivity with readily obtained soil survey data, with emphasis that all the empirical formulae are to be used strictly within their domains of applicability.