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Estimating parameters for the Van Genuchten model from soil physical-chemical properties of undisturbed loess-soil

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Abstract

The soil water characteristic curve is an important soil hydraulic property that governs soil water storage, availability, and has potential influences of hydrological and ecological processes in whole ecosystems. In order to obtain the soil water characteristic in a convenient and fast way, one hundred and three undisturbed Loess-soil samples were selected for the study. The results show that the BP neural network based on the genetic algorithm optimization model proposed in this paper can obtain the soil water characteristic curve from easily-obtained soil physical-chemical properties, with the prediction accuracy AEmean = 0.0213, REmean = 0.0752, and RMSEmean = 0.1378. The research results provide a basis for the further study of soil water holding capacity of undisturbed loess soil, and also provide a more accurate method for obtaining soil water characteristic curve.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Water Resources Science and Engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan, 030024, Shanxi, China

    Wenjing Qin & Guisheng Fan

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  1. Wenjing Qin
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  2. Guisheng Fan
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Correspondence to Guisheng Fan.

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Communicated by: H. Babaie

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Qin, W., Fan, G. Estimating parameters for the Van Genuchten model from soil physical-chemical properties of undisturbed loess-soil. Earth Sci Inform 14, 1563–1570 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12145-020-00503-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12145-020-00503-3

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