340-7 Reclassifying Soil Textures Based On Hydrologic Function.



Wednesday, October 19, 2011: 10:00 AM
Henry Gonzalez Convention Center, Room 007A, River Level

Amy K. Rice, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA and Ty Ferre, Department of Hydrology and Water Resources, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
We will present a novel approach to reclassifying soil texture based on hydraulic response.  The approach recognizes that the movement of water through soils depends on a combination of the transmission and storage properties of soils.  These characteristics are complex functions of several hydraulic properties.  Our approach applies clustering techniques to the results of water flow simulations to group together soils that have the most similar responses to applied infiltration, drainage, and evapotranspiration forcings. The results, when plotted on the classic soil texture triangle, give insight into the importance of sand, silt, and clay for predicting hydrologic responses.  We propose that these reclassified soils will lead to new maps of soil hydraulic function based on existing textural information, thereby uncovering new landscape-scale patterns of infiltration capacity, runoff generation, flood susceptibility, and other related natural hazard and water management information.
See more from this Division: S01 Soil Physics
See more from this Session: Patterns In Soil Physical Properties: From Micrometers to Kilometers