Prediction of saturated hydraulic conductivity with pedotransfer functions for Sistan Plain soils

Articles in Press

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

Department of Water Engineering, Faculty of Water and Soil, University of Zabol, Zabol, Iran

Abstract

One of the important parameters in the evaluation of soil hydrological properties is saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ksat), which plays an important role in modeling flow and solute transport in soil. Pedotransfer functions (PTFs) relate Ksat to readily available soil properties such as particle size distribution, bulk density, and organic matter, and have been widely developed due to their simplicity and high efficiency. The aim of this study is to evaluate the performance of twenty-three PTFs in predicting Ksat for 100 samples of Sistan soils. These functions were divided into three groups A, B, and C based on the input components. The results showed that when effective porosity is the only available data (Group A), the PTFs developed by Suleiman et al. (2001) and Ahuja et al. (1989) are the best models. If particle size distribution, bulk density, and porosity data are available (Group B), the PTFs developed by Cosby et al. (1984) and Ottoni et al. (2019) are the most accurate models. Among the PTFs that require organic matter in addition to particle size distribution and bulk density (Group C), the functions of Zuo and He (2021) and Wosten et al. (2001) showed the highest performance. Finally, if the availability of input data is not a limiting factor, the most accurate PTFs are those developed by Cosby et al. (1984), Zuo and He (2021), Ottoni et al. (2019), Wosten et al. (2001), respectively. The results can be used to predict Ksat in hydrological modeling for the study area.

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Iranian Journal of Soil and Water Research

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 25 August 2025

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