Soil column experiments to quantify vadose zone water fluxes in arid settings

Abstract

For the determination of groundwater recharge processes in arid environments, vadose zone water fluxes and water storage should be considered. To better understand and quantify vadose zone processes influencing groundwater recharge, a soil column experimental setup has been developed that mimics arid atmospheric conditions and measures water and temperature fluxes in high temporal and spatial resolution. The focus of the experiment was on the determination of water infiltration, redistribution, evaporation and percolation under non-isothermal conditions. TDR rod sensors and a specific TDR ''Taupe'' cable sensor were used for water content measurements and allowed the infiltration fronts to be traced over the whole column length. Applying single irrigations of different amount and intensity showed the applicability of the experimental setup for the measurement of water movement in the unsaturated soil column.

Integrated Water Resources Management under different hydrological, climatic and socio-economic conditions

“…New solutions for a sustainable management of the scarce water resources in (semi-) arid regions are explored in Oman (Grundmann et al 2011) and Saudi Arabia (Pfletschinger et al 2011). Research topics are (1) the large-scale, highly precise determination of groundwater recharge, (2) saltwater intrusion (Kalbacher et al 2011a), (3) the storage and use of ephemeral streams (artificial groundwater recharge), and (4) the optimization of water use in agriculture .…”

Coupling hydrogeological with surface runoff model in a Poltva case study in Western Ukraine

“…This type of research is further closely related to sustainability research in sensitive regions [e.g. in Brazil (Lorz et al 2011;Vasyukova et al 2011), Saudi Arabia (Pfletschinger et al 2011), Oman (Grundmann et al 2011;Schütze et al 2011); Mongolia (Sigel et al 2011;Horlemann and Dombrowsky 2011), and the Western Ukraine (Tavares Wahren et al 2011;Scheifhacken et al 2011)]. Correlations between hydrological processes and compartments as well as urbanization dynamics can become quite complex.…”

Laboratory Experiments of Drainage, Imbibition and Infiltration under Artificial Rainfall Characterized by Image Analysis Method and Numerical Simulations

“…Other issues concern the estimation of unsaturated hydrodynamic parameters from column experiments, fingering and unstable flows observed during infiltration in dry unsaturated media, rainfall-induced slope failure, device calibration, flux quantification in VZ, etc. [42,[53][54][55][56][57]. As previously stated, photography is currently used for qualitative explanations and observations because of evident visualization benefits; nonetheless, an advanced procedure might be required [42].…”