Water Retention Curve - Shape Parameters

Shape Parameters

The shape of water retention curves can be characterized by several models, one of them known as the van Genuchten model:

where

is the water retention curve ;
is suction pressure ( or cm of water);
saturated water content ;
residual water content ;
is related to the inverse of the air entry suction, (, or cm−1); and,
is a measure of the pore-size distribution, (dimensionless).

Based on this parametrization a prediction model for the shape of the unsaturated hydraulic conductivity - saturation - pressure relationship was developed.

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