TY - JOUR

T1 - Guidelines and a supporting toolbox for parameterising key soil hydraulic properties in hydrological studies and broader integrated modelling

AU - Dang, Nguyet Anh

AU - Jackson, Bethanna Marie

AU - Tomscha, Stephanie Anne

AU - Lilburne, Linda

AU - Burkhard, Kremena

AU - Tran, Dung Duc

AU - Phi, Long Hoang

AU - Benavidez, Rubianca

N1 - Funding information: We are grateful for the funding support provided by Victoria University of Wellington’s Victoria Doctoral Scholarship and the Marina van Damme Scholarship (University of Twente) to Dang Anh Nguyet and for the support from the Holdsworth Charitable Trust provided to Stephanie Tomscha. We would like to thank Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research for granting us the access to S-map data of the Hurunui catchment.

PY - 2022/4/19

Y1 - 2022/4/19

N2 - Information on soil hydraulic properties (e.g. soil moisture pressure relationships and hydraulic conductivity) is valuable for a wide range of disciplines including hydrology, ecology, environmental management and agriculture. However, this information is often not readily available as direct measurements are costly and time-consuming. Furthermore, as more complex representations of soils are being built into environmental models, users and developers often require sound hydraulic property information, while having limited access to specialist knowledge. Although indirect methods have been developed to obtain soil hydraulic properties from easily measurable or readily available soil properties via pedotransfer functions (PTFs), few articles provide guidance for obtaining soil hydraulic properties over a wide range of geoclimatic and regional data availability contexts. The aim of this study is, therefore, to develop guidelines and an associated spatially referenced toolbox, NB_PTFs, to speed the process of acquiring sensible soil hydraulic properties for different geoclimatic and data-rich/sparse regions. The guide compiles available information about soil hydraulic properties, as well as a large number (151) of PTFs, not collated in any other guidance to date. NB_PTFs is an open-source ArcGIS toolbox which allows users to quickly get values, graphs and spatial distributions of soil hydraulic properties. The soil hydraulic properties, obtained using the guide and the toolbox, can be used as inputs for various models amongst other purposes. To demonstrate the use of the guidelines and the toolbox in different geoclimatic and data-availability contexts, the paper presents two case studies: the Vietnamese Mekong Delta and New Zealand Hurunui catchment. The Vietnamese Mekong Delta shows the use of these guidelines in a tropical, flat location with limited information on soil physical, chemical and hydraulic properties. The Hurunui catchment represents a case study for a semi-arid and hilly area in an area with detailed soil information.

AB - Information on soil hydraulic properties (e.g. soil moisture pressure relationships and hydraulic conductivity) is valuable for a wide range of disciplines including hydrology, ecology, environmental management and agriculture. However, this information is often not readily available as direct measurements are costly and time-consuming. Furthermore, as more complex representations of soils are being built into environmental models, users and developers often require sound hydraulic property information, while having limited access to specialist knowledge. Although indirect methods have been developed to obtain soil hydraulic properties from easily measurable or readily available soil properties via pedotransfer functions (PTFs), few articles provide guidance for obtaining soil hydraulic properties over a wide range of geoclimatic and regional data availability contexts. The aim of this study is, therefore, to develop guidelines and an associated spatially referenced toolbox, NB_PTFs, to speed the process of acquiring sensible soil hydraulic properties for different geoclimatic and data-rich/sparse regions. The guide compiles available information about soil hydraulic properties, as well as a large number (151) of PTFs, not collated in any other guidance to date. NB_PTFs is an open-source ArcGIS toolbox which allows users to quickly get values, graphs and spatial distributions of soil hydraulic properties. The soil hydraulic properties, obtained using the guide and the toolbox, can be used as inputs for various models amongst other purposes. To demonstrate the use of the guidelines and the toolbox in different geoclimatic and data-availability contexts, the paper presents two case studies: the Vietnamese Mekong Delta and New Zealand Hurunui catchment. The Vietnamese Mekong Delta shows the use of these guidelines in a tropical, flat location with limited information on soil physical, chemical and hydraulic properties. The Hurunui catchment represents a case study for a semi-arid and hilly area in an area with detailed soil information.

KW - data sparse

KW - hydrology

KW - Pedo-transfer functions

KW - soil hydraulic conductivity

KW - soil moisture content

KW - soil water content

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85131055259&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.3897/ONEECO.7.E76410

DO - 10.3897/ONEECO.7.E76410

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85131055259

VL - 2022

JO - One Ecosystem

JF - One Ecosystem

IS - 7

M1 - e76410

ER -