Libardi's method refinement for soil hydraulic conductivity measurement

Abstract

The method of Libardi to estimate soil hydraulic conductivity in the field, during the redistribution of soil water, is discussed and improved. It is shown that if the saturated soil water content is measured at the soil surface, values at any other depth can be calculated from the database used to compute hydraulic conductivity. Since the saturated soil water content is difficult to measure and critical to the establishment of the hydraulic conductivity functions, this is an important refinement of the method. It is also shown that the unit hydraulic gradient assumption, which is part of the methodology, does not introduce significant errors in the estimation of soil hydraulic conductivity.