Prediction of soil infiltration rate based on particle size distribution, bulk density, organic matter and moisture content of soil.

Soil infiltration rate is often determined using laborious and time consuming field tests, but it may be more suitable and economical to develop a method which predicts soil infiltration rate based on available physical properties of soil. Therefore, a relation between soil infiltration rate and some physical properties of soil is needed. In this study, for predicting soil infiltration rate (IN) based on particle size distribution, viz. silt content (SI) and clay content (CL) of soil, bulk density (BD) of soil, organic matter (OM) of soil and moisture content (MC) of soil, a five-variable linear regression model was suggested. The statistical results of study indicated that in order to predict soil infiltration rate based on particle size distribution, bulk density, organic matter and moisture content of soil the five-variable linear regression model IN = 28.13 - 0.220 SI - 0.518 CL + 4.592 BD - 1.440 OM + 0.022 MC with R = 0.9092 can be strongly recommended. 2