Prediction of hydraulic conductivity and correlating it with soil properties for Coimbatore district

Abstract

In this study, the saturated hydraulic conductivity was indirectly predicted from soil textural data and the effect of other soil factors on hydraulic conductivity was examined. The study was conducted in Coimbatore district, Tamil Nadu. The soil samples were collected from two different depths (0-15cm and 15-30cm). The samples were examined for both physical and chemical properties. The hydraulic conductivity was indirectly derived from textural data based on Saxton et al. (1986) model. The result revealed that the sand and particle density showed higher correlation values of r = 0.6 and r = 0.26 compared to other soil properties. The prediction performance of the model had coefficient of determination of 51%, hence it is concluded that the Saxton model is suitable for indirect determination of saturated hydraulic conductivity.