This second edition was undertaken to update information which has become available since the first edition and to convert completely to the SI system. The main objective of this book is to stress application of soil physics principles to real problems. The problems are heavily oriented toward the soil water-plant-atmosphere continuum. This book grew out of a course taught to upper level undergraduate and graduate students from many different disciplines and backgrounds. I have found that problems are a very good teaching tool because students need to solve them on their own and adapt them to their own understanding. I have found this problem-solving experience to be greatly enhanced if examples are available. Thus, this book is heavily laden with examples. This edition includes reference to many models, involving basic concepts discussed herein, by which it is possible to solve many more realistic--and more complex--problems such as drainage below the root zone (and associated pollution), plant growth as related to climate, soil properties, management, etc. The intent is to encourage students to advance to the next level. The book is not intended to be a complete introduction to applied soil physics, but rather to emphasize problem-solving and the important aspects of soil water and temperature.

An abridged, student-oriented edition of Hillel's earlier published Environmental Soil Physics, Introduction to Environmental Soil Physics is a more succinct elucidation of the physical principles and processes governing the behavior of soil and the vital role it plays in both natural and managed ecosystems. The textbook is self-contained and self-explanatory, with numerous illustrations and sample problems. Based on sound fundamental theory, the textbook leads to a practical consideration of soil as a living system in nature and illustrates the influences of human activity upon soil structure and function. Students, as well as other readers, will better understand the importance of soils and the pivotal possition they occupy with respect to careful and knowledgeable conservation. - Written in an engaging and clear style, posing and resolving issues relevant to the terrestrial environment - Explores the gamut of the interactions among the phases in the soil and the dynamic interconnection of the soil with the subterranean and atmospheric domains - Reveals the salient ideas, approaches, and methods of environmental soil physics - Includes numerous illustrative exercises, which are explicitly solved - Designed to serve for classroom and laboratory instruction, for self-study, and for reference - Oriented toward practical problems in ecology, field-scale hydrology, agronomy, and civil engineering - Differs from earlier texts in its wider scope and holistic environmental conception

The importance to preserve soil and water have is increasingly recognized. Agricultural practices and ecological trends both affect and are affected by soil physical properties. The more frequency of natural disasters, as landslides and thunderstorms addresses the importance to integrate soil characteristics in predictive models. Soil physics research has grown considerably specially in the use of innovative sensors, soil databases, and modeling techniques have been introduced into soil water relationship and environmental monitoring. Those advances are thoroughly dispersed in articles and conference proceedings In this volume, the authors will bring together the effectiveness of many new field and lab sensors and examine the current state-of-the-art in modeling and data analysis. It also includes innovative approaches and case studies in tropical soils. Future directions in soil physics research are given by key researchers in this discipline.

Numerical models have become much more efficient, making their application to problems increasingly widespread. User-friendly interfaces make the setup of a model much easier and more intuitive while increased computer speed can solve difficult problems in a matter of minutes. Co-authored by the software’s creator, Dr. Jirka Šimůnek, Soil Physics with HYDRUS: Modeling and Applications demonstrates one- and two-dimensional simulations and computer animations of numerical models using the HYDRUS software. Classroom-tested at the University of Georgia by Dr. David Radcliffe, this volume includes numerous examples and homework problems. It provides students with access to the HYDRUS-1D program as well as the Rosetta Module, which contains large volumes of information on the hydraulic properties of soils. The authors use HYDRUS-1D for problems that demonstrate infiltration, evaporation, and percolation of water through soils of different textures and layered soils. They also use it to show heat flow and solute transport in these systems, including the effect of physical and chemical nonequilibrium conditions. The book includes examples of two-dimensional flow in fields, hillslopes, boreholes, and capillary fringes using HYDRUS (2D/3D). It demonstrates the use of two other software packages, RETC and STANMOD, that complement the HYDRUS series. Hands-on use of the windows-based codes has proven extremely effective when learning the principles of water and solute movement, even for users with very little direct knowledge of soil physics and related disciplines and with limited mathematical expertise. Suitable for teaching an undergraduate or lower level graduate course in soil physics or vadose zone hydrology, the text can also be used for self-study on how to use the HYDRUS models. With the information in this book, you can run models for different scenarios and with different parameters, and thus gain a better understanding of the physics of water flow and contaminant transport.

Applications of Soil Physics deals with the applications of soil physics and covers topics ranging from infiltration and surface runoff to groundwater drainage, evaporation from bare-surface soils, and uptake of soil moisture by plants. Water balance and energy balance in the field are also discussed, along with tillage and soil structure management. The development and extension of Penman's evaporation formula is also described. This book is comprised of 14 chapters and begins with a systematic description of the field-water cycle and its management, with emphasis on infiltration and runoff; redistribution and drainage; evaporation and transpiration; and irrigation and tillage. Subsequent chapters focus on transpiration from plant canopies; freezing phenomena in soils; scaling and similitude of soil-water phenomena; spatial variability of soil physical properties; and movement of solutes during infiltration into homogeneous soil. Concepts of soil-water availability to plants are considered, together with principles of irrigation management and the advantages and limitations of drip irrigation. This monograph is intended for upper-level undergraduate and graduate students of the environmental, engineering, and agronomic sciences.

Elements of Soil Physics

Now in its third edition, this textbook gives a comprehensive account of soil physics with emphasis on field applications for students and research workers engaged in water resources studies, soil sciences, and plant sciences. The authors have added chapters on soil erosion, conservation, and the role of soil in affecting water quality to this new edition. The book gives an account of how water influences the structure and strength of soil; how plants absorb water from soils; how water from rain and irrigation enters the soil and flows through it to contribute to stream flow and flow in artificial drains; how soluble salts and chemical pollutants are transported; how soils are eroded by water and wind; and how the evaporation rate from the land surface is influenced by soil water supply, the nature of the plant cover and the evaporative power of the atmosphere. This book will be useful to students and research workers in environmental sciences, hydrology, agriculture, soil science, and civil engineering.

Principles of Soil Physics examines the impact of the physical, mechanical, and hydrological properties and processes of soil on agricultural production, the environment, and sustainable use of natural resources. The text incorporates valuable assessment methods, graphs, problem sets, and tables from recent studies performed around the globe and offers an abundance of tables, photographs, and easy-to-follow equations in every chapter. The book discusses the consequences of soil degradation, such as erosion, inhibited root development, and poor aeration. It begins by defining soil physics, soil mechanics, textural properties, and packing arrangements . The text continues to discuss the theoretical and practical aspects of soil structure and explain the significance and measurement of bulk density, porosity, and compaction. The authors proceed to clarify soil hydrology topics including hydrologic cycle, water movement, infiltration, modeling, soil evaporation, and solute transport processes. They address the impact of soil temperature on crop growth, soil aeration, and the processes that lead to the emission of greenhouse gases. The final chapters examine the physical properties of gravelly soils and water movement in frozen, saline, and water-repellant soils. Reader-friendly and up-to-date, Principles of Soil Physics provides unparalleled coverage of issues related to soil physics, structure, hydrology, aeration, temperature, and analysis and presents practical techniques for maintaining soil quality to ultimately preserve its sustainability.

This book covers material taught in a graduate-level soil physics course at Washington State University. While most soil physics courses dwell mainly on deriving rather than solving the differential equations for transport, the author's approach is to focus on solutions. Graduate students in agricultural and biological sciences usually have a good working knowledge of algebra and calculus, but not of differential equations. In order to teach methods for solving very difficult differential equations with difficult boundary conditions using fairly simple mathematical tools, the author uses numerical procedures on microcomputers to solve the differential equations. Numerical methods convert differential equations into algebraic equations which can be solved using conventional methods of linear algebra.This book reflects the philosophy used in the course. Each chapter introduces soil physics concepts, generally in the conventional way. Most chapters then go on to develop simple computer programs to solve the equations and illustrate the points made in the discussion. Problems at the end of each chapter help the reader practice using the concepts introduced in the chapter. The problems and computer programs are an integral part of the presentation, and readers are strongly encouraged to experiment with each model until both the working of the model and the concepts it teaches are familiar. Although the programs are generally short and relatively simple, they are suitable for use as submodels in large, general-purpose models of the soil-plant-atmosphere system, and have been used in this way by the author and by several of his students.Teachers and students alike will welcome this new textbook. It will enable graduate students to understand and solve transport problems which exist in field situations, and will provide them with a good working knowledge of soil physics - fundamental to so many other areas in soil, plant and engineering sciences.