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Measuring Hydrologic Properties of Soil with a Double-ring Infiltrometer and Multiple-depth Tensiometers¹

ABSTRACT

A ring infiltrometer with varying width of buffer zone in combination with multiple-depth tensiometers was tested for determining the hydrologic properties of a Typic Dystrandept (Tantalus silty clay loam) soil profile on a Hawaii forested watershed. With location of one multiple-depth tensiometer at the vertical axis of the axi-symmetric flow system and one or more at a given radius outside the inner ring, both vertical and radial hydraulic gradients could be simultaneously measured. It was thus possible to estimate the lateral flow components and determine vertical infiltration rates and hydraulic conductivities (at field saturation) of the different soil horizons. Lateral flow decreased with time during infiltration. Under the moist to wet conditions of the soil under study, lateral flow was not appreciable. From an inner ring of 30-cm diameter, the latter was practically eliminated when a buffer ring of 90-cm diameter was employed. Its effect on the final infiltration rate was negligible even when a buffer ring of 60-cm diameter was used.

¹ Contribution from the Department of Agronomy and Soil Science, University of Hawaii. Journal Series no. 1900 of the Hawaii Agric. Exp. Stn. and Contribution no. 671 of the Hawaii Institute of Geophysics. Work supported by Cooperative Agreement no. 21-190 with the Forest Service, USDA.

² Assistant Soil Scientist, Soil Scientist, and former Graduate Research Assistant, respectively.

Received for publication July 14, 1975. Accepted for publication April 14, 1976.