Variability of Infiltration Characteristics and Water Yield of a Semi Arid Catchment

Abstract

Space-time variability in the hydrologic characteristics of four major soil series represented in the Silverbell validation site was investigated by sampling the infiltration characteristics, at randomly selected locations, under several vegetative covers within each series. The experimental data was the time distribution of infiltration which, for each sampled location, was fitted by least squares to the Philip's infiltration equation. The parameters of this equation have physical interpretation and therefore were used as measures of the infiltration characteristics. Analysis of variance was used to investigate the spatial variability in the parameters. The mean values of the parameters for selected soil-vegetation combinations were used to simulate runoff due to a rainfall event over a desert catchment "containing" the given combination. Statistical tests show that there is no significant difference among the infiltration parameters of all the soil-vegetation combinations. However, the statistically insignificant variations in the parameters produce significant variations in simulated runoff volumes indicating the sensitivity of the runoff generating process to infiltration characteristics vis-a-vis the hydrologic properties of the soils.