Estimating Soil Hydraulic Parameters of Different Textured Soils in Semiarid Duhok Conditions - Iraqi-Kurdistan Region by using RETC Program

Abstract

RETC is a computer program that can be used to estimate soil hydraulic functions by easily determining soil properties. Using van Genuchten model in the RETC program gave high accuracy for estimating the hydraulic functions e.g., θ (h), k (θ) and D (h), also the mentioned program is considered a good tool for potential optimization of water management especially though calculating irrigation water after consuming 60% of the available water in root zone restoring technique.

In the current study surface, soil samples (0 – 30 cm) from eight locations with a wide range in texture were collected RETC code is used to refine the water retention curve through minimizing the residual error according to van Genuchten – Mualem approach (1980). the obtained results indicated that the sum square SSQ (residual error) values becomes smaller after refining for eight studied soils which were (Avkendal, Berderash, Chemrash, Kanisark, Keperto, Khanik, Qerwola and Terbsbia), which their SSQ values before RETC refining were ( 0.0470264, 0.0680298, 0.0240080, 0.0190478, 0.0396200, 0.0166960, 0.094400 and 0.0199100) whereas these values decrease as fallowing  (0.000333400, 0.000942618, 0.0000997008, 0.000167315, 0.002448800, 0.000243300,  0.00080000, and 0.000099917 )  with ha high coefficient of determination (R²) greater than (0.964) and the maximum refining was (0.000099917) at Chemrash silty clay loam soil with 0.9986 (R²), whereas the minimum value was(0.002448800) at Keperto loamy soil with 0.9720(R²) and this means higher precision in fitting using the retention model.

RETC code was used to analyze soil water retention curve and hydraulic conductivity functions which are the key parameters in any quantitative description of water flow into the unsaturated zone of soils, van Genuchten et. al. (1991)