Infiltration parameters for rangeland soils

Abstract

Important to the management of rangelands is knowledge of the water intake properties of their soils and the effect of soil surface and canopy cover. Using a data base of rangeland infiltration runs covering a wide range of soil and cover conditions, a procedure incorporating the effects of soil properties, soil surface cover, and vegetative canopy on the Green-Ampt hydraulic conductivity parameter was developed. Test results indicate that the estimated Green-Ampt parameters provided good predictions of the mean final infiltration rates and volumes for a variety of soil-cover situations.