Experimental Study on Soil Infiltration Characteristics Using Disc Permeameter

A new kind of soil infiltration measurement method in field, i.e., disc permeameter, was introduced in this paper. Soil infiltration characteristics of different land use types in the loess hilly-gullied area were studied using this new method and traditional double rings method. The advantages and disadvantages of these two methods were also compared. The result showed that the characteristics of soil pore and infiltration were obviously different with different land use types in the condition of the experiment. Shrub land had the highest soil characteristic mean pore size, which was 5.7 times of that in cropland and 3.5 times of that in orchard. Compared with shrub land, soil characteristic mean pore size in woodland and grassland was in the next place, which was 4 times of cropland and more than 2.5 times of orchard. Orchard has the highest infiltration rate, which was 3 times of woodland and 5 times of grassland. The sequence of stable infiltration rate in different land use types was orchard>cropland>shrub land>grassland>woodland. The soil hydraulic conductivity in shrub land was 1.5 times of cropland and 3 times of woodland. The soil hydraulic conductivity in grassland and orchard was 1.2 times of cropland and 2.8 times of woodland. The results on soil infiltration rate measured using these two methods had significantly linear correlation. The experimental result showed that disc permeameter was suitable for soil infiltration measurement in different landuse types in the loess hilly-gullied area. The new method had great advantage in measuring topsoil infiltration of 0～30 cm with its merit of labour saving, water saving, time saving and accuracy.