Characteristics of pore profile fractal dimension of soil images and its application

The pore profile fractal dimension depicts fractal geometry characteristics of soil pores, which reflects the irregular and rugged boundaries between soil pores and particles. Using digital images processing technique, the authors investigated pore profile fractal characteristics of digital images of three different types of soil, which were collected from the Fengqiu Ecology-Agro Station of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The results showed that the obvious correlativity existed between fractal properties and soil texture. The soil texture was finer (clay content is higher), the value of fractal dimension was higher. Then, based on the pore profile fractal dimensions, different fractal methods were applied to ascertain water retention characteristics, and the comparisons with measured data were conducted.