An Introduction Into Applied Soil Hydrology

Book excerpt: Historically speaking, soil science was associated with agriculture and was subdivided into several branches. One of them was soil physics, dealing with soil mechanics, soil and water relationships and solute transport through porous media. Today, we consider soil physics as part of environmental sciences. Soil hydrology, which comprises a large part of soil physics, may now be considered as part of hydrology and is closely related to geohydrology. This is the approach followed in this book. Environmental issues frequently become critical and require taking effective measures to minimize disasters. Accordingly this book is written primarily from an engineering approach. This book is addressing students, engineers and those working in the natural sciences to obtain a basic understanding of soil hydrology. Based on my university teaching over several decades, it is intended to help students with limited mathematical and physical background to fully appreciate selected basic concepts of soil hydrology. It will also appeal to readers who seek a concise introduction to soil hydrology. The reader will obtain an overall understanding of how processes in porous media may affect land use and the environment, and how to easily apply principles of soil hydrology to common problems. There is an abundance of sophisticated equipment used to monitor, measure and analyze soil processes related to soil hydrology. The intention here is to help those readers who do not possess such equipment or expensive software. For those who cannot afford lengthy investigations, the information presented here can help in the development of measurement programs and suggest helpful ways to analyze field data. Throughout the book, simple applications of soil hydrological concepts are presented that yield effective, reasonable solutions to environmental management problems, farming technique problems, and issues in land reclamation and land improvement. Attached you find a copy of the book on CD including an Appendix containing software to explain details, evaluate soil hydraulic parameters and perform simulations. The special file named "guide to files" outlines what each file does.