Analysis of spatial variability of hydraulic conductivity at field scale

Abstract

Gupta, N., Rudra, R.P. and Parkin, G. 2006. Analysis of spatial variability of hydraulic conductivity at field scale. Canadian Biosystems Engineering/Le genie des biosystemes au Canada 48: 1.55 1.62. Hydraulic conductivity, a vital input parameter in physically based rainfall-runoff modeling approaches, determined by double ring infiltrometer and Guelph permeameter along and across the slope of a field, was analyzed using conventional statistical techniques and geostatistical techniques such as auto-correlation, variogram, and kriging. The results confirmed that geo-statistical techniques better describe spatial variability of hydraulic conductivity than conventional statistical techniques. The hydraulic conductivity shows more spatial variability along the field slope than across the field slope. Therefore, more samples were required along the field slope than across the field slope to obtain a truly representative value of hydraulic conductivity. The results indicated that kriging produces a convenient smooth hydraulic conductivity surface, which may be helpful in the quantification of dominant runoff generation mechanisms and identification of runoff generation areas.