Course - detail

LEB5022 - Soil Water Dynamics


Credit hours

In-class work
per week
Practice
per week
Credits
Duration
Total
6
2
14
15 weeks
210 hours

Instructor
Paulo Leonel Libardi

Objective
- Learn the principles and mechanisms of water-soil interaction.
- Learn the physical principles and concepts that govern water dynamics in the soil root zone

Content
Surface tension and capillarity. Water structure. Retention of water in the soil. Basic measurements in
the solid-solution-air systeml: fundamental physical units; soil porosity; aeration porosity; soil water
content; soil water storage. Thermodynamics of water in soil. Soil water potentials. Measures of soil
water potentials. Movement of water in the soil: movement under saturation and non-saturation
conditions; Darcy equation and Darcy-Buckingham equation; continuity equation. Infiltration of water in
the soil; infiltration law; flow equations for infiltration. Redistribution of water in the soil: description and
analysis of the process. Soil hydraulic conductivity: laboratory and field methods; mathematical
equations; methodological implications. Water balance in vegetated soil.

Bibliography
1 - LIBARDI, P.L. Dinâmica da água no solo. EDUSP, 346 p., 2018 (livro texto).
2 - KUTILEK, M & NIELSEN, D.R. Soil hydrology. Catena Verlag, Cremlingen. 1994.
3 - JURY, W.A; HORTON, R. . Soil physics. 6th ed. John Wiley & Sons, New York, 2004.
4 - DANE, J. H.; TOPP, C. (Editors) .Methods of soil analysis. Part 4. Madison, American Society of
Agronomy, 2002.
5 - SUMMER, M.E. (Editor). Handbook of Soil Science. CRC Press, New York (USA), 2000.
6 - MIYAZAKI, T. Water Flow in Soils. CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group, Florida (USA), 418 p., 2006.
7 - PREVEDELLO, C.L.; ARMINDO, R.A. Física do Solo com Problemas Resolvidos - 2ª Edição Revisada e Ampliada. 2. ed. Curitiba: C. L. Prevedello, 474 p., 2015.