Infiltration

Rainwater that soaks into the ground and may reach the
groundwater table.
Base flow: Where Groundwater Meets Surface Water
Base flow is the portion of stream flow that comes
from subsurface flow: water infiltrated but returned
to the surface in a stream channel.
Streams run even when it hasnt rained.
Base flow is very important for fish, invertebrates,
aquatic plants and other life during dry spells.
 Field Tests

24 inch double ring infiltrometer with Mariotte Tubes http://www.hilbec.com/STORMWATER.htm

Infiltration is measured in the field with bottomless rings. Mariotte

Tubes allow for measurement of liquid flow during the infiltration test by providing
a constant water level in the 24 inch Infiltration Rings
 Double-ring Infiltrometer

Two rings eliminates overestimating the hydraulic conductivity

Outer ring contributes to lateral flow , so
Inner ring is contributing mostly to downward flow.
Water from Mariotte bottles to rings via tap at base of bottles. Ring
water height equals that of the base of the bubble tube.
When water moves into the soil, reducing the height of ring water to
below that of the bubble tube, more water is fed into the ring.
 Estimates 1: Hortons Equation
Horton: The infiltration capacity decreases
exponentially with time and ultimately
reaches a constant rate
Infiltration capacity
Where ft is the infiltration rate at time t;
f0 is the initial infiltration rate or maximum
infiltration rate;
fc is the constant or equilibrium infiltration rate after
the soil has been saturated or minimum infiltration
rate; NOTE e is a number, ~ 2.718
k is the decay constant specific to the soil.
the fs have units in/hr and k is a time constant hr -1
 Hortons Infiltration Model for soil capacity

Infiltration starts at a constant rate, f0, and is decreasing exponentially

with time, t. After some time when the soil saturation level reaches a
critical value, the rate of infiltration will level off to the rate fc.
In a few minutes we will do an example using Hortons
Equation using an average rectangle estimate to the area under
the curve.
 Estimates 2: F index

Infiltration Volume = total rainfall volume runoff volume as

measured in the rain gages and at the outlet gage, respectively.
F assumes infiltration volume resulted from a constant infiltration
rate. It assumes a high initial infiltration is balanced by a low later
infiltration.
 Example: Guessing F

We will find F in this problem by guessing a value for F , calculating

the total runoff that would result, and comparing our answer to the
known runoff.