The dynamics of a shallow perched watertable on a heavy soil in the lower herbert valley

摘要

The duration and dynamics of a shallow perched watertable was measured, and modelled and the amount of subsurface flow (interflow) from the watertable to the in-field drains (water furrows) was quantified. A watertable model was used to test the robusteness of the measured soil hydraulic properties and to predict the relative duration of waterlogging between a field with and without water furrows. The presence and duration of the shallow perched watertable agreed with other observations. The amount of interflow was calculated and was found to be only a small component of the water balnce (9 percent). The presence of the water furrows in the field design was found to decrease the length of waterlogging by 11 days over a 150-day period.