Water-repellent soils usually experience water flow impedance during the early stage of a wetting process followed by progressive increase of infiltration rate. Current infiltration models are not formulated to describe this peculiar process. Similarly, simplified methods of soil hydraulic characterization (e.g., BEST) are not equipped to handle water-repellent soils. Here, we present an adaptation of the BEST method, named BEST-WR, for the hydraulic characterization of soils at any stage of water-repellency. We modified the Haverkamp explicit transient infiltration model, included in BEST for modeling infiltration data, by embedding a scaling factor describing the rate of attenuation of infiltration rate due to water repellency. The new model was validated using analytically generated data, involving soils with different texture and a dataset that included data from 60 single-ring infiltration tests. The scaling factor was used as a new index to assess soil water repellency in a Mediterranean wooded grassland, where the scattered evergreen oak trees induced more noticeable water repellency under the canopies as compared to the open spaces. The new index produced results in line with those obtained using the water drop penetration time test, which is one of the most widely test applied for quantifying soil water repellency persistence. Finally, we used BEST-WR to determine the hydraulic characteristic curves under both hydrophilic and hydrophobic conditions.

拒水土壤通常在润湿过程的早期阶段经历水流阻抗，随后渗透率逐渐增加。当前的渗透模型没有制定来描述这种特殊的过程。同样，土壤水力表征的简化方法（例如，BEST）也不适用于处理防水土壤。在这里，我们提出了 BEST 方法的一种改编，称为 BEST-WR，用于在任何防水阶段对土壤进行水力表征。我们修改了包含在 BEST 中用于建模渗透数据的 Haverkamp 显式瞬态渗透模型，通过嵌入一个比例因子来描述由于防水性引起的渗透率衰减率。使用分析生成的数据验证了新模型，涉及具有不同质地的土壤和一个包含 60 个单环渗透测试数据的数据集。比例因子被用作评估地中海树木繁茂草地土壤疏水性的新指标，与开放空间相比，散落的常绿橡树在树冠下产生更明显的疏水性。新指标产生的结果与使用水滴渗透时间测试获得的结果一致，水滴渗透时间测试是用于量化土壤拒水性持久性的最广泛测试之一。最后，我们使用 BEST-WR 来确定亲水和疏水条件下的水力特性曲线。与开放空间相比，散落的常绿橡树在檐篷下产生了更明显的防水性。新指标产生的结果与使用水滴渗透时间测试获得的结果一致，水滴渗透时间测试是用于量化土壤拒水性持久性的最广泛测试之一。最后，我们使用 BEST-WR 来确定亲水和疏水条件下的水力特性曲线。与开放空间相比，散落的常绿橡树在檐篷下产生了更明显的防水性。新指标产生的结果与使用水滴渗透时间测试获得的结果一致，水滴渗透时间测试是用于量化土壤拒水性持久性的最广泛测试之一。最后，我们使用 BEST-WR 来确定亲水和疏水条件下的水力特性曲线。