Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Pedotransfer functions to estimate soil water content at field capacity and permanent wilting point in hot Arid Western India

  • Published:
Journal of Earth System Science Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Characterization of soil water retention, e.g., water content at field capacity (FC) and permanent wilting point (PWP) over a landscape plays a key role in efficient utilization of available scarce water resources in dry land agriculture; however, direct measurement thereof for multiple locations in the field is not always feasible. Therefore, pedotransfer functions (PTFs) were developed to estimate soil water retention at FC and PWP for dryland soils of India. A soil database available for Arid Western India (N=370) was used to develop PTFs. The developed PTFs were tested in two independent datasets from arid regions of India (N=36) and an arid region of USA (N=1789). While testing these PTFs using independent data from India, root mean square error (RMSE) was found to be 2.65 and 1.08 for FC and PWP, respectively, whereas for most of the tested ‘established’ PTFs, the RMSE was >3.41 and >1.15, respectively. Performance of the developed PTFs from the independent dataset from USA was comparable with estimates derived from ‘established’ PTFs. For wide applicability of the developed PTFs, a user-friendly soil moisture calculator was developed. The PTFs developed in this study may be quite useful to farmers for scheduling irrigation water as per soil type.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Adhikary P P, Chakraborty D, Kalra N, Sachdev C B, Patra A K, Kumar S, Tomar R K, Chandna P, Raghav D, Agrawal K and Sehgal M 2008 Pedotransfer functions for predicting the hydraulic properties of Indian soils; Soil Res. 46(5) 476–484.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Balland V, Pollacco J A P and Arp P A 2008 Modeling soil hydraulic properties for a wide range of soil conditions; Ecol. Model. 219 300–316.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bell M A and Van Keulen H 1996 Effect of soil disturbance on pedotransfer function development for field capacity; Soil Technol. 8(4) 321–329.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bhattacharya T, Sarkar D and Pal D K 2009 Soil Survey Manual, NBSS & LUP Publication No. 146, National Bureau of Soil Survey & Land Use Planning (Indian Council for Agricultural Research), Nagpur, India, 400p.

  • Botula Y D, Nemes A, Mafuka P, Van Ranst E and Cornelis W M 2013 Prediction of water retention of soils from the humid tropics by the nonparametric-nearest neighbor approach; Vadose Zone J. 12(2) 1–17, https://doi.org/10.2136/vzj2012.0123.

  • CAZRI 2008 Annual Report; Central Arid Zone Research Institute, Jodhpur, India.

  • Chakraborty D, Mazumdar S P, Garg R N, Banerjee S, Santra P, Singh R and Tomar R K 2011 Pedotransfer functions for predicting points on the moisture retention curve of Indian soils; Indian J. Agric. Sci. 81(11) 1030.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cornelis W M, Ronsyn J, van Meirvenne M and Hartmann R 2001 Evaluation of pedotransfer functions for predicting the soil moisture retention curve; Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 65 638–648.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • D’Odorico P, Bhattachan A, Davis K F, Ravi S and Runyan C W 2013 Global desertification: Drivers and feedbacks; Adv. Water Res. 51 326–344.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gupta S C and Kapoor V K 2000 Fundamentals of mathematical statistics: A modern approach; Sultan Chand and Sons.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gupta S C and Larson W E 1979 Estimating soil water characteristics from particle size distribution, organic matter percent, and bulk density; Water Resour. Res. 15 1633–1635.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haghverdi A, Leib B G and Cornelis W M 2015 A simple nearest-neighbor technique to predict the soil water retention curve; Trans. ASABE 58(3) 697–705.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hodnett M G and Tomasella J 2002 Marked differences between van Genuchten soil water-retention parameters for temperate and tropical soils: A new water-retention pedo-transfer functions developed for tropical soils; Geoderma 108 155–180.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Khlosi M, Alhamdoosh M, Douaik A, Gabriels D and Cornelis W M 2016 Enhanced pedotransfer functions with support vector machines to predict water retention of calcareous soil; Eur. J. Soil Sci. 67(3) 276–284.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Klute A 1986 Water retention: Laboratory methods; In: Methods of soil analysis. Part I: Physical and Mineralogical Methods. Agronomy Series 9, 2nd edn, American Society of Agronomy, Madison, WI, USA, pp. 635–662.

  • Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2005 Ecosystems and human well-being: Desertification synthesis; World Resources Institute, Washington, DC.

  • Minasny B and McBratney A B 2002 The neuro-m method for fitting neural network parametric pedotransfer functions; Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 66 352–361.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mohanty M, Sinha N K, Painuli D K, Bandyopadhyay K K, Hati K M, Reddy K S and Chaudhary R S 2015 Modelling soil water contents at field capacity and permanent wilting point using artificial neural network for Indian soils; Nat. Acad. Sci. Lett. 38(5) 373–377.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nemes A, Schaap M G and Wösten J H M 2003 Functional evaluation of pedotransfer functions derived from different scale of data collection; Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 67 1093–1102.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Patil N, Pal D, Mandal C and Mandal D 2012 Soil water retention characteristics of vertisols and pedotransfer functions based on nearest neighbor and neural networks approaches to estimate AWC; J. Irrig. Drain Eng. 138(2) 177–184.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • R Core Team 2013 R: A language and environment for statistical computing; R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria, http://www.R-project.org/.

  • Rawls W J, Brakensiek D L and Saxton K E 1982 Estimation of soil water properties; Trans. ASAE 25 1316–1320.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rijsberman F R 2006 Water scarcity: Fact or fiction? Agric. Water Manag. 80 5–22.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Romano N and Palladino M 2002 Prediction of soil water retention using soil physical data and terrain attributes; J. Hydrol. 265 56–75.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Santra P and Das B S 2008 Pedotransfer functions for soil hydraulic properties from a hilly watershed of eastern India; Geoderma 146 439–448.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sarma V A K, Krishnan P and Budihal S L 1987 Soil resources mapping of different states in India: Laboratory manual; Technical Bulletin No. 14, National Bureau of Soil Survey & Land Use Planning (Indian Council for Agricultural Research), Nagpur, India, 49p.

  • Sehgal J L, Saxena R K and Vadive1u S 1987 Soil resource mapping of different states in India: Field manual (2nd edn), Technical Bulletin No. 13, National Bureau of Soil Survey & Land Use Planning (Indian Council for Agricultural Research), Nagpur, India, 73p.

  • Schaap M G, Leij F J and van Genuchten M Th 2001 Rosetta: A computer program for estimating soil hydraulic parameters with hierarchical pedotransfer functions; J. Hydrol. 251 163–176.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schewe J, Heinke J, Gerten D, Haddeland I, Arnell N W, Clark D B, Dankers R, Eisner S, Fekete B M, Colón-González F J, Gosling S N, Kim H, Liu X, Masaki Y, Portmann F T, Satoh Y, Stacke T, Tang Q, Wada Y, Wisser D, Albrecht T, Frieler K, Piontek F, Warszawski L and Kabat P 2013 Multimodel assessment of water scarcity under climate change; Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1222460110.

  • Sharma J P, Giri J D, Shyampura R L and Gajbhiye K S 2006 Soil series of Gujarata; NBSS&LUP Publication No. 120, National Bureau of Soil Survey & Land Use Planning (Indian Council for Agricultural Research), Nagpur, India, 329p.

  • Shwetha P, Varija K and Kumar P 2013 Study on soil moisture retention function for the Indian forested hillslope soils; J. GeoEng. 8(1) 11–18.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shyampura R L, Singh S K, Singh R S, Jain B L and Gajbhiye K S 2002 Soil series of Rajasthan; NBSS&LUP Publication No. 96, National Bureau of Soil Survey & Land Use Planning (Indian Council for Agricultural Research), Nagpur, India, 329p.

  • Singh A K 2000 Use of pedotransfer functions in crop growth simulations; J. Water Manag. 8 18–21.

    Google Scholar 

  • Soil Survey Staff 1996 Soil survey laboratory methods manual. Soil Survey Investigations Report 42 (ver. 3), United States Department of Agriculture, Lincoln, NE, http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/16/nrcs143_019356.pdf.

  • Soil Survey Staff 2010 Keys to soil taxonomy, 11th edn, USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service, Washington, DC, ftp://ftp-fc.sc.egov.usda.gov/NSSC/Soil_Taxonomy/keys/2010_Keys_to_Soil_Taxonomy.pdf.

  • Tietje O and Tapkenhenrichs M 1993 Evaluation of pedo-transfer functions; Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 571088–1095.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tomasella J and Hodnett M G 1998 Estimating soil water retention characteristics from limited data in Brazilian Amazonia; Soil Sci. 163 190–202.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Unger P W 1975 Water retention by core and sieved soil samples; Soil Sci. Soc. Am. Proc. 39 1197–1200.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • van Den Berg M, Klamt E, van Reeuwijk L P and Sombroek W G 1997 Pedotransfer functions for the estimation moisture retention characteristics of ferrasols and related soils; Geoderma 78 161–180.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • van Reeuwijk L P 2002 Procedures for soil analysis; 6th edn, Technical Paper 9, International Soil Reference Centre (ISRIC), Wageningen.

  • Vereecken H, Maes J, Feyen J and Darius P 1989 Estimating the soil moisture retention characteristics from texture, bulk density and carbon content; Soil Sci. 148 389–403.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vörösmarty C J, Green P, Salisbury J and Lammers R B 2000 Global water resources: Vulnerability from climate change and population growth; Science 289 284–288.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wagner B, Tarnawski V R, Hennings V, Müller U, Wessolek G and Plagge R 2001 Evaluation of pedo-transfer functions for unsaturated soil hydraulic conductivity using an independent data set; Geoderma 102(3) 275–297.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Walkley A and Black I A 1934 An examination of Degtjareff method for determining soil organic matter, and a proposed modification of the chromic acid titration method; Soil Sci. 37 29–38.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wösten J H M and van Genuchten M Th 1988 Using textures and other soil properties to predict the unsaturated soil hydraulic functions; Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 52 1762–1770.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wösten J H M, Lilly A, Nemes A and Le Bas C 1999 Development and use of a database of hydraulic properties of European soils; Geoderma 90 169–185.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wösten J H M, Verzandvoort S J E, Leenaars J G B, Hoogland T and Wesseling J G 2013 Soil hydraulic information for river basin studies in semi-arid regions; Geoderma 195–196 79–86.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Young K K and Dixon J D 1966 Overestimation of water content at field capacity from sieved sample data; Soil Sci. 101 104–107.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhao C, Shao M A, Jia X, Nasir M and Zhang C 2016 Using pedotransfer functions to estimate soil hydraulic conductivity in the Loess Plateau of China; Catena 143 1–6.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • http://ncsslabdatamart.sc.egov.usda.gov/ NCCS Soil Characterization Database.

Download references

Acknowledgements

We express our sincere thanks to the Director, ICAR-CAZRI Jodhpur for providing necessary support to carry out the present study (CAZRI/T-04/31). The senior author (PS) also expresses his sincere thanks to the National Director, NAIP (ICAR), Director CAZRI and Dr P C Pande, Head of Division CAZRI for providing the opportunity for foreign training in Geoinformatics, and to Dr H M C van Holsteijn, Director a.i. of ISRIC–World Soil Information, The Netherlands, for hosting PS as a guest researcher working on ‘spatial assessment of soil properties using digital soil mapping techniques’ (Sept.–Dec. 2013). We thank the Editor and reviewers for their detailed and insightful comments that helped to improve the paper.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. ICAR-Central Arid Zone Research Institute (CAZRI), Jodhpur, 342 003, India

    Priyabrata Santra, Mahesh Kumar, R N Kumawat & D K Painuli

  2. ICAR-Indian Institute of Soil Science (ISSS), Bhopal, 462 001, India

    K M Hati

  3. ISRIC-World Soil Information, Wageningen, The Netherlands

    G B M Heuvelink & N H Batjes

Authors
  1. Priyabrata Santra
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Mahesh Kumar
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. R N Kumawat
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. D K Painuli
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. K M Hati
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. N H Batjes
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Priyabrata Santra.

Additional information

Corresponding editor: Prashant K Srivastava

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Santra, P., Kumar, M., Kumawat, R.N. et al. Pedotransfer functions to estimate soil water content at field capacity and permanent wilting point in hot Arid Western India. J Earth Syst Sci 127, 35 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12040-018-0937-0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12040-018-0937-0

Keywords

Search

Navigation