M. Sadeghi; B. Ghahraman; A.N. Ziaei; K. Davary
Abstract
After introducing similar media theory, many scaling methods were developed and have been widely used to cope with soil variability problem as well as to achieve invariant solutions of Richards’ equation. Recently, a method was developed for scaling Richards’ equation (RE) for dissimilar soils such ...
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After introducing similar media theory, many scaling methods were developed and have been widely used to cope with soil variability problem as well as to achieve invariant solutions of Richards’ equation. Recently, a method was developed for scaling Richards’ equation (RE) for dissimilar soils such that the scaled RE is independent of soil hydraulic properties for a wide range of soils. This method uses exponential – power hydraulic functions which are restricted to a limited range of soil-water content and matric potential. Hence, this method does not apply to the phenomena in which soil-water content and matric potential exceeds this range. Therefore, this research was performed to extend the method for a wider range of soil-water content and matric potential. This objective was achieved by modifying the exponential – power hydraulic functions and the scaling method was extended to the entire range of soil wetness (from saturated to dry). This study was followed to solve RE for soil-water infiltration using scaling. To do so, numerical solutions of the scaled RE was approximated by a scaled form of Philip three-term equation with soil-independent coefficients. The obtained approximate solution was tested using literature data of infiltration experiments on a sandy and two clayey soils. Results indicated that the solution can reasonably estimate (with the average relative error at most 9% for the cases studied here) measured infiltrated water. Also, it was shown that this solution can accurately approximate (with the average relative error at most 4% for the cases studied here) the numerical solutions of RE (for the same conditions and hydraulic functions). Hence, because of its simplicity, the solution is proposed as an alternative for numerical solutions of RE or other empirical equations for soil-water infiltration. Additionally, this solution can be easily applied to determine soil hydraulic functions by inverse solutions.
A.A. Sabziparvar; S. Tanian
Abstract
The main aim of this research is investigating the effect of ENSO phenomenon on reference evapotranspiration (ET0) on monthly, seasonal and annual time scales, using Southern Oscillation Index (SOI). For this purpose, 13 sites located in cold climate regions with 50 years (1957-2006) meteorological data ...
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The main aim of this research is investigating the effect of ENSO phenomenon on reference evapotranspiration (ET0) on monthly, seasonal and annual time scales, using Southern Oscillation Index (SOI). For this purpose, 13 sites located in cold climate regions with 50 years (1957-2006) meteorological data were selected. In the first step, the reference evapotranspiration rates were determined for the selected sites by using FAO recommended approach. In the second step, different phases (El Nino, La Nina and normal) were separated in terms of SOI and the mean deviation of ET0 values at each phase were compared by Mann-Whitney test. At statistical significant levels (p< 0.1), good correlation were found between the ET0 values and SOI. About 72% of correlations were positive and the rest (28%) were negative. In positive SOI-ET0 correlations, the monthly averages of ET0 values during El Nino phases were 14.8% and 10.8% lower than ET0 of La Nina and Normal phases, respectively. On the contrary, the average ET0 rates in La Nina phases were 13.1% higher than the corresponding values of normal pahses. The mean time lag to observe the highest impact of ENSO on ET0 was 3.2 months. The highest effective months in the study sites was found to be November, October and December, respectively. In seasonal time scale, 68% of the statistical significant affecting cases were occurred in autumn. It was found that the cold climates were more sensitive to the ENSO signals than warm climates. The results can be useful for policy makers in water resources management and agricultural sectors.
