Evaluation of Soil Hydraulic Properties in Northern and Central Tunisian Soils for Improvement of Hydrological Modelling

Asma Hmaied, Pascal Podwojewski, Ines Gharnouki, Hanene Chaabane and Claude Hammecker ()
Additional contact information
Asma Hmaied: Institut National Agronomique de Tunisie (INAT), 43 Av. Charles Nicolle, Tunis 1082, Tunisia
Pascal Podwojewski: Institut d’Ecologie et des Sciences de l’Environnement de Paris (iESS), IRD, SU, INRAe, CNRS, UPCité, UPEC, 93143 Bondy, Cedex, France
Ines Gharnouki: Institut National Agronomique de Tunisie (INAT), 43 Av. Charles Nicolle, Tunis 1082, Tunisia
Hanene Chaabane: Institut National Agronomique de Tunisie (INAT), 43 Av. Charles Nicolle, Tunis 1082, Tunisia
Claude Hammecker: Laboratoire d’étude des Interactions Sol-Agrosystème-Hydrosystème (LISAH), University of Montpellier, INRAe, IRD, SupAgro Montpellier, 34000 Montpellier, France

Land, 2024, vol. 13, issue 3, 1-17

Abstract: The hydrological cycle is strongly affected by climate changes causing extreme weather events with long drought periods and heavy rainfall events. To predict the hydrological functioning of Tunisian catchments, modelling is an essential tool to estimate the consequences on water resources and to test the sustainability of the different land uses. Soil physical properties describing water flow are essential to feed the models and must therefore be determined all over the watershed. A simple but robust ring infiltration method combined with particle size distribution (PSD) analysis (BEST method) was used to evaluate and derive the retention properties and the hydraulic conductivities. Physically based and statistical pedotransfer functions based on PSD were compared to test their potential use for different types of Tunisian soils. The functional sensitivity of these parameters was assessed by employing the Hydrus-1D software (PC Progress, Prague, Czech Republic) for water balance computations. This evaluation process involved testing the responsiveness and accuracy of the parameters in simulating various water balance components within the model. The evaluation of soil hydraulic parameters across the three used models highlighted significant variations, demonstrating distinct characteristics in each model. While notable differences were evident overall, intriguing similarities emerged, particularly regarding saturated hydraulic conductivity between BEST and Rosetta, and the shape parameter ( n ) between Arya–Paris and Rosetta. These parallels indicate shared hydraulic properties among the models, underscoring areas of agreement amid their diverse results. Significant differences were shown for scale parameter α for the various methods employed. Marginal differences in evaporation and drainage were observed between the BEST and Arya–Paris methods, with Rosetta distinctly highlighting a disparity between physically based models and statistical models.

Keywords: watershed; hydraulic conductivity; BEST method; particle size distribution; pedotransfer functions; retention properties (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/13/3/385/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/13/3/385/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jlands:v:13:y:2024:i:3:p:385-:d:1358950

Access Statistics for this article

Land is currently edited by Ms. Carol Ma

More articles in Land from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().