Modeling Surface Hydrology Using NRCS Descriptors of Soil Structure.

Pedologists describe soil structure of pedons using size, shape, and distinctness of formations. These three modifiers have quantitative information that can be used to describe the geometry and size of large pores (mesopores and macropores) that water can preferentially flow through. The benefit of using this information is that it is available for every soil series and can be easily used to parameterize hydrology models that require information on macrospores and how they vary across a landscape. This approach is applied to a Vertisol catena where hydrology is modeled on a landscape scale.