A simple water-solute transport model which uses a new function for the infiltration rate of surface water is described. It is based on the depth that a wetting front can reach by drainage one day after a heavy rainfall. The function is designed for use in multi-layer soil moisture budget models to account for the persistence of excess water near the surface over one or more days after rain. Daily calculations are simple and non-iterative, but predict water content values which can exceed field capacity. The procedure shows promise for estimating the transport of water soluble nutrients and pollutants from the surface to the water table by infiltrating surface water. In this study the procedure was used to simulate the downward transport of chloride ions.
展开▼
