Home

SOIL 307: Environmental Soil Physics I

Credits: 
3

Theory: Movement of water in soil: saturated water flow in soil, Darcy's law, water infiltration (horizontal and vertical), profile moisture distribution after infiltration, Empirical infiltration equations, Green and Ampt approach; Soil structure: aggregate stability, factors affecting soil structure; Tillage: "clean" and conservation tillage practices, residue management; Physics of rainfall: amount, intensity, kinetic energy, momentum; Surface runoff and water erosion: laminar and turbulent flow, particle transport by running water, sheet, rill and gully erosion, erosivity of rainfall, erodibility of soil.  The Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE); control of soil erosion: agronomic and engineering methods.

Practicals: Field infiltration determination using the double ring infiltrometer, determination of aggregate stability, estimation of rain drop diameter and kinetic energy of rain, estimation of rainfall intensity from rainfall charts and calculation of kinetic energy using an empirical equation; estimation of soil erodibility using soil particle size distribution; estimation of rainfall erosivity index.