With the increasing economic growth in the arid regions of the West, and with the growing need for waste disposal and storage, the ability to efficiently model water flow and pollutant transport through unsaturated soils is becoming more important. One of the more difficult water flow problems to model, from a numerical point of view, is infiltration into very dry soils. The presence of very steep pressure gradients combined with the large field scales leads to algorithms that are very CPU intensive. Here we develop a water content based algorithm that is suitable for modeling one‐dimensional unsaturated water flow into layered soils. We show that this algorithm is a numerical approximation of a general form of Richards equation. We compare the computational efficiency of this algorithm with that of two pressure head based finite difference water flow algorithms for several test problems. We find that the mass balance errors for the noniterative water content formulation are of the order of machine round off error for most applications. We also find that for soils with fairly wet initial conditions (h ≈ −100 cm H2O) the water content formulation requires approximately the same CPU time as the faster of the two pressure head formulations. For very dry soils (h=−1000 to −50,000 cm H2O) the CPU time required for the water content formulation is not a function of the initial water content of the soil, whereas the CPU time required for the pressure head formulation strongly increases with decreasing initial water content. Because of this lack of sensitivity to initial conditions, the water content based algorithm is from 1 to 3 orders of magnitude faster than the pressure head based algorithms when applied to infiltration into very dry soils. The water content algorithm is not suitable for combined saturated‐unsaturated or near‐saturated flow that may be present because of local heterogeneities in the soil. In addition, the water content algorithm cannot handle positive pressure upper boundary conditions such as those associated with ponded surface water.

[1] Near-surface water balance modeling is often used to evaluate land-atmosphere interactions, deep drainage, and groundwater recharge. The purpose of this study was to compare water balance simulation results from seven different codes, HELP, HYDRUS-1D, SHAW, SoilCover, SWIM, UNSAT-H, and VS2DTI, using 1-3 year water balance monitoring data from nonvegetated engineered covers (3 m deep) in warm (Texas) and cold (Idaho) desert regions. Simulation results from most codes were similar and reasonably approximated measured water balance components. Simulation of infiltrationexcess runoff was a problem for all codes. Annual drainage was estimated to within ±64% by most codes. Outliers result from the modeling approach (storage routing versus Richards' equation), upper boundary condition during precipitation, lower boundary condition (seepage face versus unit gradient), and water retention function (van Genuchten versus Brooks and Corey). A unique aspect of the code comparison study was the ability to explain the outliers by incorporating the simulation approaches (boundary conditions or hydraulic parameters) used in the outlying codes in a single code and comparing the results of the modified and unmodified code. This approach overcomes the criticism that valid code comparisons are infeasible because of large numbers of differences among codes. The code comparison study identified important factors for simulating the near-surface water balance.

Contaminant distribution coefficients determined under saturated conditions are often used to model transport under unsaturated conditions. Although the distribution coefficients are assumed to be consistent under different moisture conditions, this is rarely tested. Column and batch adsorption tests were used to determine strontium distribution coefficients in crushed basalt. Column tests were conducted at saturated and unsaturated moisture contents. Batch tests were conducted at several solid/liquid ratios. Preliminary column tests using bromide as a conservative tracer indicated the presence of immobile water in the column and pointed toward the use of a two-region model to determine the Sr distribution coefficients. Use of a single-region model (no immobile water), however, resulted in an average value (3.09 mL/g) not significantly different than the average value determined using the two-region model (3.41 mL/g). Moisture content had no significant effect on Sr distribution coefficients determined by applying either model to the column test data. The batch test distribution coefficient determined at the recommended standard solid/liquid ratio (0.25 g/mL) was less than the column test values and decreased significantly with increasing solid/liquid ratio. The results indicate that K ds determined with this method will not accurately reflect Sr transport in unsaturated or saturated basalt.

Solute transport experiments are often conducted with homogeneous soils, whereas transport in real situations takes place in heterogeneous soils. An experiment was conducted to compare unsaturated solute transport through uniform and layered soils. Pulse inputs of tritiated water, bromide and chloride were applied under steady flow conditions to the tops of two large (0.95 m diameter by 6 m deep) soil columns. One column was uniformly filled with loamy fine sand and the other filled with alternating 20‐cm‐thick layers of loamy fine sand and silty clay loam. Soil solution samples were collected during the experiment with suction candles installed at various depths in the columns. Solute transport parameters were estimated by fitting the convection‐dispersion equation to the observed breakthrough curves for each solute at various depths in each column. The match between the resulting calibrated curves and the experiment was better for the layered soil column than for the uniform soil column. The results displayed no clear relationship between the dispersion coefficients and depth for any of the tracers for either column. However, dispersivities were greater in the uniform column (3.5 cm) than in the layered column (1.2 cm), while retardation factors for bromide and chloride were similar (0.8 and 0.83, respectively, for the uniform and layered columns). A retardation factor less than one is attributed to anion exclusion. There was evidence of preferential flow in the uniform soil column. The peak concentrations at 5 m depth were greater than those observed at 4 m. Such behavior is inconsistent with one‐dimensional flow. Similar results were observed in an experiment performed 3.5 years earlier using the same soil column and approximately the same flow rates, but using a different tracer and associated chemical analysis, different soil saturation prior to the execution of the experiment, and different experimental personnel. This supports the thesis that the anomalous behavior is due to some form of preferential flow rather than due to experimental error.

The use of steady‐state models can sometimes reduce the computational resources and input data required for solution of transient transport problems. A large column experiment was performed to test whether solute transport parameters determined from a steady flow experiment may be used in transient, unsaturated flow and transport model predictions. Tritiated water and bromide were applied at a steady rate to the top of a 0.95 m diameter by 6 m deep soil column containing unsaturated soil. After 10 days, tracers were eliminated from the irrigation water. When the soil moisture content within the column ceased to change, another 10‐day pulse of tritiated water and bromide was applied, followed by water without tracers. Transport model parameters were determined through optimization, using breakthrough curves observed at various depths. The tritiated water and bromide pulses lagged behind the wetting front during infiltration into the relatively dry soil. The bromide pulse moved 17–20% faster than the tritiated water pulse, because of anion exclusion. Breakthrough curves for the transient and steady‐state experiments were similar. Because the solute fronts lagged significantly behind the moisture fronts, steady‐state transport parameters, when used in a fully transient numerical model, fairly described the transport under transient conditions.