Pedon

In variably saturated groundwater flow modeling, soil hydraulic functions and their parameters are essential for accurate simulations. However, obtaining these parameters experimentally is difficult, time-consuming, and uncertain. pedon integrates soil hydraulic models, parameter databases, and parameter estimation methods into a single reproducible framework.

Key Concepts

Soil Hydraulic Models: Parametric descriptions of the soil water retention curve (SWRC) and unsaturated hydraulic conductivity function (HCF). pedon provides different formulations from the literature. Additionally, users can easily create their own custom soil models.

Parameter Datasets: Pre-determined parameter values for common soils from established databases (HYDRUS, VS2D, Staring series).

Pedotransfer Functions: Empirical relationships that estimate soil parameters from easily measured properties (sand/silt/clay content, bulk density, organic matter).

Parameter Fitting: Direct estimation of model parameters by fitting to laboratory measurements using nonlinear least-squares optimization (RETC methodology).

Model Conversion: Translate between different soil model formulations to enable comparison and integration with external tools.

Examples

This collection of Jupyter Notebooks demonstrates how to use pedon for analyzing and modeling unsaturated soil hydraulic properties. These notebooks show practical workflows for obtaining soil hydraulic parameters from various data sources and integrating them into groundwater flow modeling studies.

• Pedon Package Structure
• Soil Models
• Soil Parameter Datasets
• Pedotransfer Functions
• Parameter Estimation via HYPAGS
• Curve Fitting
• From k value to Gardner via HYPAGS + Curve Fitting Routine