Comparison of different methods for determining saturated hydraulic conductivity

Abstract

Soil saturated hydraulic conductivity is an important parameter for flow and transport related processes in the soil but the different methods of its measurement vary under different field conditions. The performance of three in situ  methods were evaluated at 20, 40 and 80 cm depths on an alluvial floodplain soil classified as fine loamy isohyperthermic aeric Trapaquept. The Guelph permeameter method gave the lowest estimates of saturated hydraulic conductivity, possibly because of small sample size, whereas the Disk permeameter method gave maximum values for saturated saturated hydraulic conductivity with minimum variability, possibly due to large sample size. The estimates of saturated hydraulic conductivity were most comparable for the velocity permeameter and the laboratory method using a constant head permeameter.