Field measurement of infiltration for irrigation & drainage

Abstract

An understanding of the infiltration of water into soil is very important for irrigation engineers, to ensure optimum use of water resources. Infiltration into the soil under unsaturated and saturated conditions are often discussed in the modeling of water resources systems. Similarly drainage of water under varying conditions of saturation reflecting drainage from irrigation, drainage during floods arresting threats of salinity are also challenge faced by many practicing engineers. These have resulted great concerns in the estimation of infiltration parameters. The determination of infiltration parameters are based on either laboratory experiments or on insitu testing. Due to the most likely non-representativeness of laboratory samples, irrigation engineers often prefer insitu testing to estimate infiltration parameters. There are various insitu methods or field methods used for the measurement of infiltration. This research was conducted to study the field methods used to estimate infiltration