Revisiting Vereecken Pedotransfer Functions: Introducing a Closed‐Form Hydraulic Model

We revisited the Vereecken database, which has been used to derive pedotransfer funcƟ ons (PTFs) to esƟ mate the soil hydraulic parameters of Belgian soils. We developed new PTFs based on the Mualem-van Genuchten model, constrain- ing m = 1 − 1/n and using fewer parameters. The goodness-of-fi t was similar to the one originally obtained by Vereecken. We used a one-step procedure that allows direct quanƟ fi caƟ on of the correlaƟ on matrix and the uncertainƟ es of the esƟ mated parameter values. The coeffi cients of the new PTFs were esƟ mated using a global search algorithm and they were validated against independent data. The PTFs have a wider range of applicability since: (i) they allow the use of the closed-form soluƟ on of the unsaturated hydraulic conducƟ vity in the Mualem-van Genuchten model; and (ii) they consider the eff ect of macroporosity. We determined that the hydraulic conducƟ vity measured close to saturaƟ on could not be esƟ mated based on the available esƟ mators; however, the hydraulic conducƟ vity in the matrix domain was predicted with high accuracy.

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