Experimental study on unsaturated hydraulic properties of vegetated soil

Song, Lianchun; Li, J.H.; Zhou, Tianwei; Fredlund, D. G.

doi:10.1016/j.ecoleng.2017.04.013

Cited by 57 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…Studies that focus on relatively young plants found slowing of infiltration (Gish & Jury, 1983;Leung et al, 2015;Jotisankasa & Sirirattanachat, 2017) presumably due to root occupancy of soil pore space, which blocks water flow paths (Scholl et al, 2014;Ng et al, 2016). In contrast, increased infiltration rate is more often reported in mature plants (van Noordwijk et al, 1991;Mitchell et al, 1995;Ng et al, 2017), and is attributable to the formation of (a) root channel related macropores associated with root decay (Ghestem et al, 2011) or (b) desiccation cracks upon drying of medium-to high-plasticity clay (Zhan et al, 2007;Jotisankasa & Sirirattanachat, 2017;Song et al, 2017). The existing research often considered plant effects only at one particular plant age.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plant age effects on soil infiltration rate during early plant establishment

et al. 2017

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Infiltration rate affects slope stability by determining the rate of water transport to potential failure planes. This note considers the influences of vegetation (grass and willow) establishment and root growth dynamics on infiltration rate, as related to establishing vegetation on bioengineered slopes. Soil columns of silty sand with and without vegetation were tested by constant-head infiltration tests at 2, 4, 6 and 8 weeks after planting. Infiltration rate increased linearly with plant age and below-ground traits including root biomass and root length density. Infiltration rate for willow-rooted soil was an order of magnitude higher than for fallow soil. The plant age effect was more prominent for willow, which grew faster and with thicker roots than the grass. Illustrative seepage analysis suggests that ignoring the plant age effects could underestimate wetting front advancement to greater depths during rainfall, and underestimate suction recovery at shallow depths during internal drainage.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plant age effects on soil infiltration rate during early plant establishment

et al. 2017

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“…As shown in Figure 10, the saturated hydraulic conductivity k s of the soil columns used in this study were compared to those green roof substrates in other studies (Bouzouidja et al, 2018; Braswell, Winston, & Hunt, 2018; Poë, Stovin, & Berretta, 2015; Song, Li, Zhou, & Fredlund, 2017; Soulis, Valiantzas, Ntoulas, Kargas, & Nektarios, 2017). Notice that the saturated hydraulic conductivities of bare soils (NS and BAS) in this study were lower than those of most green roof substrates, because of the low permeability clay adopted in the present study.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental study on the hydrological performance of green roofs in the application of novel biochar

Huang

Garg

Mei

et al. 2020

Hydrological Processes

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Biochar has the potential to be a soil amendment in green roofs owing to its water retention, nutrient supply, and carbon sequestration application. The combined effects of biochar and vegetated soil on hydraulic performance (e.g., saturated hydraulic conductivity, retention and detention, and runoff delay) are the crucial factor for the application of the novel biochar in green roofs. Recent studies investigated soil water potential (i.e., suction) either on vegetated soil or on biochar-amended soil but rarely focused on their integrated application. With the purpose of investigating the hydraulic performance of green roofs in the application of biochar, the combined effect of biochar and vegetated soil on hydrological processes was explored. Artificial rainfall experiments were conducted on the four types of experimental soil columns, including natural soil, biochar-amended soil, vegetated natural soil, and vegetated biocharamended soil. The surface ponding, bottom drainage and the volumetric water content were measured during the rainfall test. Simulation method by using HYDRUS-1D was adopted for estimating hydraulic parameters and developing modelling analysis. The results indicated that the saturated hydraulic conductivity of vegetated soil columns were higher than bare soil columns. The addition of biochar decreased the saturated hydraulic conductivity, and the magnitude of decrease was much significant in the case of vegetated soil. The influence of vegetation on permeability is more prominent than biochar. The vegetated biochar-amended soil has the highest retention and detention capacity, and shows a preferable runoff delay effect under heavy rain among the four soil columns. The results from the present study help to understand the hydrological processes in the green roof in the application of biochar, and imply that biochar can be an alternative soil amendment to improve the hydraulic performance.

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“…Since the shallow layer is quickly dried to low water content during periods without rainfall, plants are forced to develop roots at higher depths [63,65]. As root growth generates in-depth fissures and preferential paths, the hydraulic conductivity is enhanced in the corresponding layer [49,63,[65][66][67], which causes a faster hydraulic response [67]. The latter is clearly illustrated in Figure 3a,b where the points corresponding to depths greater than 6 cm are located above the line of equal changes of water contents in vegetated and non-vegetated slopes.…”

Section: Hydraulic Aspectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Slope Orientation and Vegetation Effects on Soil Thermo-Hydraulic Behavior. An Experimental Study

et al. 2020

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The stability and erosion of natural and man-made slopes is influenced by soil-vegetation-atmosphere interactions and the thermo-hydro-mechanical slope conditions. Understanding such interactions at the source of slope mass-wasting is important to develop land-use planning strategy and to promote environmentally adapted mitigation strategies, such as the use of vegetation to stabilize slopes and control erosion. Monitoring is essential for calibrating and validating models and for better comprehending the physical mechanisms of soil-vegetation-atmosphere interactions. We approached this complex problem by means of an experimental work in a full-scale monitored embankment, which is divided into four instrumented partitions. These partitions are North or South-faced and present a bare and vegetation cover at each orientation. Our main findings show that vegetation enhances rainfall infiltration and decreases runoff, which reduces slope stability and surficial erosion, while plant transpiration induces higher suctions and hence slope stability. Concerning thermal aspects, vegetation reduces the incidence of net solar radiation and consequently heat flux. Thus, daily temperature fluctuations and evaporation decreases. However, the effect of vegetation in the development of dryer soil conditions is more significant than the orientation effect, presenting higher drying rates and states at the North-vegetated slope compared to the South-bare slope.

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Experimental study on unsaturated hydraulic properties of vegetated soil

Cited by 57 publications

References 26 publications

Plant age effects on soil infiltration rate during early plant establishment

Plant age effects on soil infiltration rate during early plant establishment

Experimental study on the hydrological performance of green roofs in the application of novel biochar

Slope Orientation and Vegetation Effects on Soil Thermo-Hydraulic Behavior. An Experimental Study

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