Soil Science Society of America Journal 64:1563-1569 (2000)
© 2000 Soil Science Society of America
DIVISION S-1-SOIL PHYSICS
Measuring Hydraulic Properties Using a Line Source
II. Field Test
Z.Fred Zhanga,
R.Gary Kachanoskic,
Gary W. Parkinb and
Bingcheng Sic
a School of Geography and Geology, McMaster Univ., Hamilton, ON, Canada L8S 4M1
b Dep. of Land Resource Science, Univ. of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada N1G 2W1
c Graduate Studies and Research, Univ. of Saskatchewan, Rm 50 Murray Bldg, 3 Campus Drive, Saskatoon, SK, Canada S7N 5A4
gparkin{at}lrs.uoguelph.ca
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ABSTRACT
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We designed and tested a field method to measure unsaturated soil hydraulic properties using multi-purpose time domain reflectometry (TDR) probes below a surface line source with constant flux of water. The surface line source was produced with a moving irrigation system at a field site sheltered from precipitation. Two hundred multi-purpose TDR probes were vertically installed in the soil beneath the line source to measure soil water pressure head (
), water storage (W), and tracer travel time (T). The soil hydraulic properties, the inverse macroscopic capillary length (
), hydraulic conductivity at saturation (Ks), and soil water content at saturation (
s) were estimated by inverse procedures with new analytical expressions. Five combinations of measurement sets, namely W-only,
and W,
and T, and W and T, and
and W and T were used. Approximate confidence contours in the
Ks plane were calculated to show the precision of the parameter estimates. For comparison, hydraulic properties were also measured by means of the Guelph Permeameter (GP) and the modified Guelph Pressure Infiltrometer (GPI) systems. Hydraulic parameters estimated from only W measurements were similar to those estimated from the combinations of W and
, or W and T, or W and
and T. The estimated hydraulic parameters were similar to those obtained with three-dimensional (3-D) infiltration measurements by means of the GP and GPI systems.
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INTRODUCTION
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THERE ARE MANY TECHNIQUES AVAILABLE to measure the hydraulic properties of unsaturated soils in the field (e.g., Green et al., 1986; Reynolds and Elrick, 1985). The choice of which technique to use is often governed by soil type, degree of spatial variability, and the end-use of the hydraulic parameters.
Inverse procedures have the benefits of (i) ability to calculate parameter values that produce the best-fit between observed and simulated values, and (ii) quantifying the confidence limits in parameter estimates and the predictions. If the estimation involves two parameters, the parameter confidence range can be expressed in confidence contours (Draper and Smith, 1966.) The confidence interval can be used to give the level of confidence of analytical or numerical models of water flow (Hill, 1989). For example, by using inverse problem methodology, Russo et al. (1991) expressed the validity of estimates of soil hydraulic parameters in terms of confidence intervals.
One of the obstacles to the use of the inverse procedure is the lack of sufficient information to solve the inverse models (Poeter and Hill, 1997). The use of multi-purpose time domain reflectometry (TDR) probes (Baumgartner et al., 1994) provides an efficient way to measure pressure head, water storage, and the travel time of a conservative ionic tracer by means of a single probe. Si et al. (1999) recently measured the field average hydraulic parameters during one-dimensional (1-D) constant flux infiltration with multi-purpose TDR probes to obtain the average K(
) and
(
) functions for a field site at Camp Borden, Ontario. Zhang et al. (2000) developed three expressions to estimate soil hydraulic properties using a constant flux surface line source. They also analyzed the sensitivity and uniqueness of these expressions.
The objectives of this study were to: (i) conduct a field test of the Zhang et al. (2000) expressions describing the steady state distributions of pressure head (
), water storage (W), and tracer travel time (T) for constant flux below a surface line source; and (ii) use inverse procedures and the in situ measured
, W, and T distributions to estimate inverse macroscopic capillary length (
), saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ks), and saturated volumetric soil water content (
s) of a uniform sandy soil.
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Theory
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Using Philip's (1971) steady-state expressions for a constant flux surface line source and Russo's (1988) relationship between soil water content (
) and pressure head (
), Zhang et al. (2000) derived the following expressions:
 | (1) |
and

| (2) |
and
 | (3) |
where x is the horizontal distance perpendicular to the line source, z is the vertical distance from the source (positive downward),
is the inverse macroscopic capillary length (m-1), Ks is the hydraulic conductivity at saturation (ms-1), q is source strength (m3 s-1 m-1),
(x, z) is the pressure head (m) at soil position (x, z),
0(z) is the pressure head directly below the source at soil depth z,
0 and
1 are modified Bessel functions of the second type of order zero and one, respectively (Bowman, 1958), W(x, L) is the water storage from z = 0 to z = L,
s is soil water content at saturation (m3 m-3),
r is residual soil water content (m3 m-3), L is the length of TDR probe, and T(z*) (s) is tracer travel time from the surface to depth z = z*, directly below the line source
.
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Materials and methods
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Field Experiment Procedure
The experiments were carried out at the same sandy soil site as that of Si et al. (1999) in Camp Borden, Ontario. A description of the field site, experimental design including TDR probe placement, and water delivery system has already been given by Si et al. (1999), so only a brief summary will be repeated here. Fifty nests of multi-purpose TDR probes were installed under the line source with a between-nest spacing of 0.15 m. Each nest included a linear four-probe array with probe lengths of 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, and 0.8 m, and a between-probe spacing of 0.1 m. The probe arrays were installed perpendicular to the line source with the 0.4-m-long probe placed directly under the source (Fig. 1)
. The moving sprinkler irrigation system described by Si et al. (1999) was modified to create a line source by adding a metal trough with an open bottom (Fig. 1) and by using one nozzle instead of multiple nozzles. The trough directed a constant flux of water from the nozzle system along a line (0.04 m wide and 8.8 m long) directly above the 0.4-m-long TDR probes (Fig. 1). The flux of water depends on the speed of the moving sprayer system, the time delay at the end of each spray cycle, and the spraying pressure, all of which can be programmed.
The design of the multi-purpose TDR probes was based on Baumgartner et al. (1994). One of the two waveguides was a hollow stainless steel tube with inner diameter of 5 mm and outer diameter of 8 mm. A threaded stainless steel porous tip (Mott Metallurgical Corp., Farmington, CT) was connected to one end of the hollow tube. At the other end, a plexiglas tube was glued to the steel and the opening of the plexiglas tube was sealed by a rubber sub-a-seal stopper. Filled with water, this hollow waveguide can be used as a tensiometer. The other waveguide was a solid stainless steel rod of 4-mm diameter.
Soil water pressure head was measured with a tensimeter (Soil Measurement Systems, Tucson, AZ) and the water-filled waveguide. Soil dielectric was measured with TDR (Tektronix Cable Tester, Model 1502C, Tektronix, Beaverton, OR) and was converted to water content by the equation given by Topp et al. (1980).
The method of Kachanoski et al. (1992) was used to measure the tracer travel time, T(z*), versus depth of the center of mass of a step pulse of a conservative ionic tracer applied after steady-state water content conditions were achieved. Kachanoski et al. (1992) used impedance, R, measurements at long reflection times from vertically installed TDR probes for 1-D, steady-state flow conditions. Kachanoski et al. (1994) extended this method to measure steady-state conservative ionic tracer movement in the vertical flow line directly under a point source with 3-D flow. By means of the same procedure, the relative mass, MR(t) of a conservative ionic tracer from the soil surface to the measurement depth, z, along the vertical flow line directly below a line source for a step pulse application is:
 | (4) |
where MR(t) is the total relative mass of applied tracer at time t, R(t) is the measured impedance load of the TDR rods at time t at a fixed distance along the TDR oscilloscope trace after multiple reflections, t is the time since the addition of the conservative ionic tracer, Ri is the initial measured impedance load before tracer addition, and Rf is the final constant TDR impedance load measured after the dispersed tracer front has passed the ends of the TDR rods.
On the basis of the assumption that the depth-averaged soil water content doesn't vary appreciably [i.e.,
(z)
L
z] along the vertical streamline (Philip, 1984; Revol et al., 1991), the relative specific conservative ionic tracer mass can be expressed as the ratio of the depth of center of mass of the advancing tracer front to probe length (Kachanoski et al., 1994). The relative specific tracer mass under two-dimensional (2-D) water movement conditions is:
 | (5) |
where z*(t) is the center of mass of the conservative ionic tracer front at time, t, and L is the length of the TDR probe. Rearranging Eqs. [4] and [5], the location, z*, of the tracer front at time T is given as
 | (6) |
Thus, the location of the center of mass of the tracer front along the vertical streamline below a constant flux line source of water, as a function of time, can be non-destructively determined by measuring only the relative changes in TDR line impedance. The tracer travel time as a function of vertical distance, T(z*), is obtained by inverting z*(T).
Three steady-state experiments, each with a different line source strength, were carried out. During each experiment, a flow meter (Neptune Meters Ltd., Canada) measured the total volume of water applied to the 8.8-m-long line source. The source strength was computed by dividing the volume of water by the total elapsed time and the length of the line source. The line source strengths for the three experiments were 0.67 x 10-6, 0.90 x 10-6, and 1.49 x 10-6 m3 s-1 m-1, respectively.
For each source strength, water was applied until soil water storage measurements indicated steady-state conditions (approximately 12 d depending on source strength). At steady state, measurements of soil water storage and pressure head were taken. The line source water was then replaced with a 0.1% (w/v) KCl solution, and the movement of the center of mass of tracer (Cl-) was determined by the method of Kachanoski et al. (1992). The strength of the line source was held constant before and during Cl- application. Before the next experiment, Cl- from the previous experiment was leached below the measuring zone by applying water to the whole site to induce deep drainage.
Inverse Estimates of
, Ks and
s
Five parameters (i.e.,
, Ks,
s,
r, and m) are included in Eq. [1], [2], and [3]. In general,
r does not vary significantly in the field. Thus, the 1.5 MPa soil water content determined from repacked soil cores was used as an estimate of
r, which is 0.052 m3 m-3. The soil at the Borden site is fine sand and the reported saturated hydraulic conductivity values is
(Si et al., 1999). The soil is reasonably similar to the hypothetical sandy loam soil
of Kool et al. (1985), and consequently Russo's (1988) value for
was assumed. The inverse procedure of Zhang et al. (2000) was used to estimate
, Ks and
s. The general inverse model used to estimate these three parameters is
 | (7) |
where Gi is a measurement, which is either pressure head (
), water storage (W), or tracer travel time (T),
i (
, Ks,
s) is the model prediction,
i is measurement error, and N is the number of measurements. Since the inversion model (Eq. [7]) is nonlinear, the confidence level of the estimates will be approximate. Details are given below.
Combinations of different sets of measurements (i.e., involving
, W, or T) are used in Eq. [7]. Since
, W, and T have nonlinear relationships with
, Ks, and
s, a nonlinear least squares fitting procedure is used with the assumptions of normality and independence of the errors,
(Ratkowsky, 1983; Draper and Smith, 1966). The modified objective function, Sp(
, Ks,
s), is the sum of squared error and a constraint term for the nonlinear model (Zhang et al., 2000, Eq. [18]):
 | (8) |
where n = 1, 2, or 3, is the number of combining sets of measurements used, nj is the number of measurements in a particular set, wj are the weights associated with a particular measurement set, wij is the weights associated with a single measurement, w
s is the weight associated with
s, and
sp is the value of
s determined using prior information. An estimate of
sp = 0.42 is used based on the work by Si (1998) conducted on the same site. The weight w
s will be determined on the basis of the variance of
s. If it is assumed that the 95% confidence interval can be approximated by
, then
, where
is the standard error of
s. The estimated variance of
s, Var
s, is then equal to
.
The values of the weighting coefficients in Eq. [8] are determined by the method given by Zhang et al. (2000). Briefly, the weighting coefficient associated with a point, wij, is set equal to 1/nj with nj being the number of points in a particular measurement set, assuming that the error within a particular measurement set is uniform. By this approach, the summation of wij for a particular measurement set is equal to 1. The weighting coefficients associated with each measurement set, wj, and with
s, w
s, are calculated by
 | (9) |
where LMSj is the least mean squared error obtained by assigning all the weights to a single set of measurements (Zhang et al., 2000).
If
in Eq. [7] is normally distributed and has a mean of zero, the least squares estimate of the parameters (
, Ks, and
s) which minimize the objective function, Eq. [8], also gives the maximum likelihood estimate of the three parameters (Draper and Smith, 1966). The calculation of Eq. [8] was performed with MathCad PLUS 6.0 (MathSoft, Inc., 1996). Finding the minimum value of S(
, Ks,
s) was accomplished by calculating S(
, Ks,
s) on a cubic grid around the initial guess values for
and Ks, and the prior determined
s. Once the point with the least error was found, the calculation was repeated by setting a smaller calculation step and a suitable range of
and Ks on the basis of the convergence point values. In the final calculation, the step in
was set equal to 0.25 m-1, that of Ks to 2.5 x 10-7 ms-1, and that of
s to 0.001 m3 m-3. The reason we used a cubic grid instead of a search routine is that the former can guarantee the global convergence regardless of calculation errors.
According to Zhang et al. (2000), unique parameters cannot be obtained by the measurements of pressure head only or by tracer travel time only in Eq. [8]. Thus, for estimating parameters, the W-only approach, three two-set combination approaches (i.e.,
+ W,
+ T, and W + T), and the three-set combination approach (
+ W + T) were used. Note that the addition signs here represent combinations in Eq. [8] and not mathematical summation.
Confidence Contours and Confidence Intervals
With prior information for
s available, the results of the estimates of
and Ks can be expressed as confidence contours in the
-Ks plane. The approximate 100(1 -
)% confidence contours can be calculated by finding points (
, Ks,
s) which satisfy (Draper and Smith, 1966)
 | (10) |
where p = 3 is the number of parameters to be estimated, N is the total number of observations,
is the confidence level, (
,
s,
s) are the best-fit values of
, Ks, and
s, Sp(
,
s,
s) is the minimum residual sum of squares occurring at (
,
s,
s), and Sp(
, Ks,
s) is the residual sum of squares occurring at any other value of (
, Ks,
s). The
is obtained from a table of the statistical F-distribution corresponding to significance level
and numerator degrees of freedom p and denominator degrees of freedom N - p.
When the error
of the nonlinear model (Eq. [7]) is assumed to be normally distributed,
s is no longer normally distributed, and the sample variance,
, is no longer an unbiased estimate of the population variance,
2, (Draper and Smith, 1966). Although confidence regions can still be defined by Eq. [10], they are approximate 100(1 -
)% confidence contours for (
, Ks,
s) (Draper and Smith, 1966). The approximate confidence interval for each parameter is obtained by finding the minimum and the maximum parameter values inside the corresponding confidence contour.
Guelph Permeameter and Guelph Pressure Infiltrometer Methods
After all the experiments using the multi-purpose TDR probes were completed, the hydraulic properties of the site were measured by the GP and GPI systems at 1-m intervals along the original line source. The auger holes for GP measurements had 0.2-m depth and 0.05-m diameter. Steady-state infiltration rates under two ponded heights, 0.05 and 0.1 m, were measured to calculate
and Ks. In addition, the modified GPI system of Fallow and Elrick (1996) was used to estimate
by measuring the soil water entry pressure heads with a water manometer attached to the air tube of the GPI as:
 | (11) |
where
we is water entry pressure head. The GPI ring diameter was 0.1 m and the insertion depth was 0.05 m. In total six measurements were taken by means of the GP and another six by the GPI system.
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Results and discussions
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Estimating the Average Values of
, Ks, and
s
By setting
and using the appropriate number of observations (200 for
, 200 for W, and 150 for T), the confidence contours can be estimated by Eq. [10]. The approximate 95% confidence contours in the
Ks plane, obtained by means of W-only, two-set combinations, and the three-set combination with source strength
are shown in Fig. 2 . Note that the relative parameter values on the axes in Fig. 2 were scaled by the corresponding best-fit values obtained by means of the three-set combination (i.e.,
). The size of the contours determines the precision of each approach. The smaller the contour, the more precise the parameter estimates. The three-set combination approach gives the smallest 95% confidence region. The W +
and W + T approaches give similar estimates of
and Ks and similar confidence regions. The W-only approach gives the largest range in
and Ks. The overlapping of the confidence regions indicates the consistency of the estimates obtained by different approaches. However, there is still about 5% chance that the true value is outside of the confidence region. This is why the 95% confidence region obtained by the
+ T approach does not overlap with the others.
The shape of the confidence contours also determines which parameter is more precisely determined. If the shape of a confidence contour is circular, the two parameters are determined equally well. If the shape of a contour is elliptical, the parameter whose axis is parallel to the minor axis of the ellipse is better determined than the other (Draper and Smith, 1966). Using the approaches of only W or W + T one can determine Ks more precisely than
, using
+ T data one can determines
more precisely than Ks, and all the other approaches (i.e.,
+ W + T and
+ W) one can determine both
and Ks with nearly equal precision (Fig. 2).
The best-fit values of
and Ks and the 95% confidence intervals indicate that the three experiments with different source strengths gave nearly the same results (Table 1)
. The use of all the data from the three experiments leads to an increase in the precision of parameter estimates, as shown by narrower confidence regions. However, the average values of the parameter estimates remain nearly the same regardless of the number of data sets used.
Because of the constraint term in Eq. [8], the estimate of
s converges at a point near the previously determined value. If one or two sets of measurements are used to estimate the hydraulic parameters,
s always converges at the initial value. The reason for this is that
s and Ks are highly correlated to each other in Eq. [2] and [3]. Only when all three sets of measurements (i.e., W,
, and T) are used, is it possible to estimate all three hydraulic parameters (i.e., Ks,
, and
s) uniquely.
For the GP method, the average Ks was 5.0 x 10-5 ms-1 with the range (minimum and maximum values) of (1.1 x 10-5, 1.0 x 10-4) ms-1, and the average
value was 6.5 m-1 with the range of (2.2, 16.6) m-1. For the GPI method, the average Ks was 9.2 x 10-5 ms-1 with the range of (5.2 x 10-5, 1.4 x 10-4) ms-1, and the average
value was 12.3 m-1 with the range of (8.3, 14.3) m-1. Although the GP and GPI estimates are more variable, they nonetheless compare well with the estimates obtained by means of the 2-D line source and inverse estimation (Table 1).
Comparisons of the predicted and measured averages of
, W, and T of each experiment using the parameter values estimated by the
+ W + T approach are given in Tables 2 to 4
. The model, Eq. [1], predicts pressure head with error
0.033 m at the measurement depth
0.4 m with only one exception (Table 2). The model underestimates the absolute values of pressure head 0.078
0.106 m at the 0.2-m depth. equation [2] predicts water storage very well, with error
0.003 m (Table 3). In the case of soil water content, the prediction error is
0.01 m3 m-3. equation [3] predicts tracer travel time with the error of -0.67
0.89 h (Table 4). The model underestimates tracer travel time at the measurement depth
0.2 m, but overestimates it at the measurement depth 0.3 m. Recall the assumption that the depth-averaged soil water content does not vary appreciably along the vertical streamline in determining the location of the conservative ionic tracer front by Eq. [6]. Therefore the measured tracer travel time is approximate making it difficult to distinguish the model error from the measurement error of tracer travel time.
Estimating Local Values of
, Ks, and
s
The local values of
, Ks, and
s were estimated by an inverse procedure by combining all the local measurements of soil water pressure head, water storage, and tracer travel time. Figure 3 and Table 5
show the results of
, Ks, and
s measurements in a 7.5-m-long transect with a sampling interval of 0.15 m. Parameter
has a slightly increasing trend, but ln(Ks) and
s are much more stationary. According to the linear correlation coefficient,
,
is not correlated with
or
, while ln(Ks) and
s are very significantly correlated (
, significant at 99% confidence level). Physically, if soil texture is the same, larger
s value indicates more voids for water movement, which leads to a larger Ks value.
Figure 4
shows the histograms of
, ln(Ks), and
s. The symmetry of a distribution can be characterized by calculating its skewness (sk), which measures the degree of asymmetry of a distribution around its mean. Positive skewness indicates the right tail is more pronounced than the left tail. The skewness should be near zero for samples from a normal distribution. Parameter
is more close to a lognormal
than to a normal distribution
for this experiment site. Parameter Ks is closer to a log-normal
than to a normal distribution
. Parameter
s is normally distributed
, as is often found in field measurements (Nielsen et al., 1973; Anderson and Cassel, 1986).
Minimum Information Required for Parameter Estimation
Theoretically, a minimum of one equation is needed to solve for one variable, and two independent equations to solve for two variables. The selection of the equations must be based on the parameter sensitivity of an expression and whether a unique set of results can be obtained (Zhang et al., 2000).
If we are interested in Ks only, one single W measurement can be used because W is more sensitive to changes in Ks than to
. That is, W has nearly zero sensitivity to changes in
if the horizontal distance to the source
(Zhang et al., 2000). Table 6
shows the results of Ks obtained by one W measurement. Even if the selected
value changes from 6 to 36 m-1, the estimates of Ks do not change very much. Compared with the results in Table 1, all the values of Ks in Table 6 are acceptable.
If we want to estimate both Ks and
, the minimum information needed is measurement of any two of pressure head, water storage and tracer travel time. A total of 300 Ks
data pairs can be obtained from the results collected at the Camp Borden site if the minimum information is used. Compared with the values in Table 1, the results (not shown), with 6 out of 300 being complex values, are very similar. The mean and standard deviation of Ks and
calculated with local values of each two combination data set are given in Table 7
. Using this approach means that we only need to measure any two of W,
, and T to estimate Ks and
. In this way, the estimated parameters are local hydraulic properties. The advantages and disadvantages of each combination approach were discussed by Zhang et al. (2000).
 |
Summary and conclusions
|
|---|
Soil hydraulic parameters (
, Ks,
s) were estimated from measurements of
, W, and T during steady-state flow from a surface line source. The measurements were taken with multi-purpose TDR probes and combined with analytical expressions and inverse procedures by Zhang et al. (2000). Confidence contours of estimated parameters were given for different combinations of available measurements. Local parameters were estimated and the spatial variability of them was analyzed. Hydraulic parameters estimated from only W measurements were similar to those estimated with W +
, or W + T, or W +
+ T approaches. The estimated hydraulic parameters were similar to those estimated by 3-D infiltration measurements using the Guelph Permeameter and Guelph Pressure Infiltrometer methods.
 |
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
|
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The research was supported by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs/University of Guelph Environmental program and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. Many thanks to Peter von Bertoldi for his help both in the lab and in the field.
Received for publication May 12, 1999.
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September 1, 2000;
64(5):
1554 - 1562.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
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