The soil properties of the upper soil layer determine the partitioning between infiltration, runoff, and evaporation, key processes related to soil agricultural and hydrological functioning. It is therefore important to have some information on these soil functions based on available and easy-to-measure properties. This study presents what we can learn a-priori from the soil water retention characteristic (WRC) on some important hydrological and agricultural functions. Based on a mathematical expression of the soil WRC, it is possible to estimate: the characteristic length, L_C, related to the disruption of hydraulic continuity of the water liquid phase in the soil; the saturated hydraulic conductivity K_s; the unsaturated hydraulic conductivity function of water and air, K(θ_w) and K(θ_a); the saturation degree S_eFC at field capacity and how long it will take to reach that state; the available water content in the soil, AWC; the capillary head at the wetting front, ψ_f; the infiltration capacity curve based on the Green and Ampt model, q_cap(t); the time to ponding, t_p, for any prescribed wetting rate; the cumulative water loss during stage-1 evaporation; the duration of stage-1 evaporation. All these a-priori estimates are valuable and sometimes necessary for efficient design and planning in agricultural and hydrological applications. The values of these estimates depend upon the specific mathematical expression chosen to represent the WRC.

中文翻译：

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我们可以从土壤的水文和农业功能方面的保水特性中了解到什么？实际知识的回顾与分析

上层土壤的土壤特性决定了入渗、径流和蒸发之间的划分，这些是与土壤农业和水文功能相关的关键过程。因此，根据可用且易于测量的特性获得有关这些土壤功能的一些信息非常重要。本研究展示了我们可以从一些重要的水文和农业功能的土壤保水特性 (WRC) 中先验了解的信息。基于土壤 WRC 的数学表达式，可以估计： 特征长度L _C，与土壤中水液相的水力连续性中断有关；饱和导水率K _s; 水和空气的不饱和导水率函数，K ( θ _w ) 和K ( θ _a )；场容量下的饱和度S _eFC以及达到该状态需要多长时间；土壤中的有效水含量，AWC；润湿前沿的毛细管头，ψ _f；基于Green和Ampt模型的渗透能力曲线，q _cap ( t )；沉思时间，t _p，对于任何规定的润湿率；第一阶段蒸发的累积失水量；第一阶段蒸发的持续时间。所有这些先验估计都是有价值的，有时对于农业和水文应用中的有效设计和规划是必要的。这些估计值取决于为代表 WRC 而选择的特定数学表达式。