Search results for "Beerkan"
showing 10 items of 30 documents
A test of the Beerkan Estimation of Soil Transfer parameters (BEST) procedure
2014
Abstract The Beerkan Estimation of Soil Transfer parameters (BEST) procedure is attractive for a simple soil hydraulic characterization but testing the ability of this procedure to estimate soil properties is necessary. The BEST predictions were compared with soil water retention and hydraulic conductivity data measured in the laboratory and the field, respectively, at ten Sicilian field sites. Provided that BEST yielded physically possible scale parameters of the soil characteristic curves in most of the four replicated infiltration runs at a site, the measured water retention was satisfactorily predicted (i.e., not statistically significant differences between measurements and predictions…
Automatic analysis of multiple Beerkan infiltration experiments for soil Hydraulic Characterization
2013
The BEST (Beerkan Estimation of Soil Transfer parameters) procedure of soil hydraulic characterization appears promising for intensively sample field areas with a reasonable effort both in terms of equipment and time passed in the field. Two alternative algorithms, i.e. BEST-slope and BEST-intercept, have been suggested to determine soil sorptivity and field-saturated soil hydraulic conductivity from a simply measured cumulative infiltration curve. With both algorithms, calculations have to be repeated also many times, depending on the number of collected infiltration data, that should vary between eight and 15. The need to consider a varying number of infiltration data is related to the fa…
Laboratory testing of Beerkan infiltration experiments for assessing the role of soil sealing on water infiltration
2018
Abstract Soil surface sealing is a major cause of decreased infiltration rates and increased surface runoff and erosion during a rainstorm. The objective of this paper is to quantify the effect of surface sealing on infiltration for 3 layered soils with different textures for the upper layer and investigate the capability of BEST procedure to catch the formation of the seal and related consequences on water infiltration. Rainfall experiments were carried out to induce the formation of the seal. Meanwhile, Beerkan infiltration runs were carried out pouring water at different distances from the soil surface (BEST-H versus BEST-L runs, with a High and Low water pouring heights, respectively) f…
Estimating saturated soil hydraulic conductivity by the near steady-state phase of a Beerkan infiltration test
2017
Abstract Single-ring infiltration experiments carried out in the field, such as the Beerkan runs, allow easy and inexpensive characterization of soil hydraulic properties, and specifically saturated soil hydraulic conductivity, Ks, by maintaining the functional connection of the sampled soil volume with the surrounding soil. However, a single infiltration experiment is not enough to determine Ks. The simplest way to obtain the necessary additional data is based on the assessment of the soil texture and structure characteristics. In this investigation, a simplified method, named SSBI (Steady version of the Simplified method based on a Beerkan infiltration run), was developed to estimate Ks b…
Testing a new automated single ring infiltrometer for Beerkan infiltration experiments
2015
International audience; The Beerkan method along with BEST algorithms is an alternative technique to conventional laboratory or field measurements for rapid and low-cost estimation of soil hydraulic properties. The Beerkan method is simple to conduct but requires an operator to repeatedly pour known volumes of water through a ring positioned at the soil surface. A cheap infiltrometer equipped with a data acquisition system was recently designed to automate Beerkan infiltration experiments. In this paper, the current prototype of the automated infiltrometer was tested to validate its applicability to the Beerkan infiltration experiment under several experimental circumstances. In addition, t…
Soil Physical Quality of Citrus Orchards Under Tillage, Herbicide, and Organic Managements
2018
Abstract Soil capacity to support life and to produce economic goods and services is strongly linked to the maintenance of good soil physical quality (SPQ). In this study, the SPQ of citrus orchards was assessed under three different soil managements, namely no-tillage using herbicides, tillage under chemical farming, and no-tillage under organic farming. Commonly used indicators, such as soil bulk density, organic carbon content, and structural stability index, were considered in conjunction with capacitive indicators estimated by the Beerkan estimation of soil transfer parameter (BEST) method. The measurements taken at the L'Alcoleja Experimental Station in Spain yielded optimal values fo…
Improved Beerkan run methodology to assess water impact effects on infiltration and hydraulic properties of a loam soil under conventional- and no-ti…
2021
Beerkan infiltration experiments with three water pouring heights (low, L = 3 cm; intermediate, M = 100 cm; high, H = 200 cm) were performed on both a no-tilled (NT) and a conventionally tilled (CT) bare loam soil to determine the surface soil hydraulic properties by the BEST-steady algorithm. Saturated soil hydraulic conductivity, Ks, significantly and monotonically decreased from the L to the H runs (from 236 to 37 mm h‒1) and lower Ks values were detected under CT (163–23 mm h‒1) than NT (346–51 mm h‒1) for each water pouring height. For both soil management practices, the gravitational potential energy, Ep, of the water used for the infiltration runs, explained most of the variance in t…
Comparing two methods to perform a beerkan infiltration run in a loam soil at different dates
2023
<p>Performing beerkan infiltration runs with different heights of water pouring could help to obtain saturated soil sorptivity, <em>S</em>, and hydraulic conductivity, <em>K<sub>s</sub></em>, data usable to explain and simulate hydrological processes. However, most of the available information on the L (low height of water pouring, nearly 3 cm) - H (high height, 1-2 m) methodology refers to runs making use of a relatively limited number of water volumes and there is some sign that a few water volumes could yield an incomplete description of soil alteration phenomena induced by wetting. For a lo…
An assessment of the BEST procedure to estimate the soil water retention curve: A comparison with the evaporation method
2018
The Beerkan Estimation of Soil Transfer parameters (BEST) procedure is an attractive, easy, robust, and inexpensive way for a complete soil hydraulic characterization but testing the ability of this procedure to estimate the water retention curve is necessary as relatively little information is available in the literature. In this investigation the soil water retention curve was predicted for four differently textured soils by applying three existing BEST algorithms (i.e., slope, intercept and steady) and the results compared with those measured by the standard Wind evaporation method. A sensitivity analysis of the infiltration constants, beta and gamma, was also carried out and their impac…
BEST-2K Method for Characterizing Dual-Permeability Unsaturated Soils with Ponded and Tension Infiltrometers
2019
This study presents a new method (BEST-2K) that extends the existing BEST methods for use in characterizing the water retention and hydraulic conductivity functions of matrix and fast-flow regions in dual-permeability soils. BEST-2K requires input information from two water infiltration experiments that are performed under ponded (Beerkan) and unsaturated (tension infiltrometer) conditions at the surface. Other required inputs include water content measurements and the traditional BEST inputs (particle size distribution and bulk density). In this study, first, a flowchart of the BEST-2K method was developed and illustrated with analytically generated data for a synthetic dual-permeability s…