Scaling Soil Hydraulic Properties of a Heterogeneous Field

Abstract Field data for soil water characteristics and hydraulic conductivity have been scaled by two methods. The set of scaling factors (α j ) determined by one method depends on soil water content. A correlation of r 2 = 0.86 is obtained between scaling factors determined from soil characteristic data and those determined from hydraulic conductivity data. In the second method, the set of α j is normally distributed, and is highly correlated with α j obtained by the first method from water characteristic data at water contents near saturation. In one method the sum of squares, about an average curve, was reduced by 44 and 66%, for the water characteristics and hydraulic conductivities data, respectively, while 92 and 82.5% reduction was obtained by the second method, for the same respective data. The results suggest that in practice, a single stochastic variable may represent the hydraulic properties of a heterogeneous field.