ESTIMATING THE SORPTIVITY OF SOILS

Six different approximations of the soil sorptivity were applied to three soils at different initial water contents. Parlange's approximation obtained by optimization was found to give excellent results. A new parameter was found to be quite constant over a range of initial water contents and is useful in estimating the sorptivity for changing initial water contents. An exponential diffusivity function was also used to approximate the sorptivity.