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A Hydrophysical Database to Develop Pedotransfer Functions for Brazilian Soils: Challenges and Perspectives

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Application of Soil Physics in Environmental Analyses

Part of the book series: Progress in Soil Science ((PROSOIL))

Abstract

Access to soil hydrological data is vital for hydrology projects and for supporting decision-making in issues related to the availability of food and water and the forecasting of phenomena related to geomechanics. Brazil is a country of continental dimensions and has accumulated a significant body of soil information, holding a prominent position in tropical soil science. Nevertheless, a database with hydrophysical information on Brazilian soils has not been compiled so far, whereas much information is registered and analyzed. In this study we discuss the potential for the development of a Brazilian hydrophysical database and pedotransfer functions (PTFs). We present on metadata the measurement methods of soil hydrophysical attributes and the characteristics of the sites where these soil properties were determined. Statistical analyses were performed to characterize the dataset according to the metadata-based data structure. A total of 8,983 datasets contains soil water retention information associated with physical or chemical properties. Besides these, 1,253 datasets with data on saturated hydraulic conductivity coupled with water retention information are also available. The results of this study suggest that it is possible to develop a representative hydrophysical database for Brazilian soils that covers most of Brazil’s federative states, with a substantial volume of data and homogeneous with respect to the methods of measuring soil properties. This creates excellent prospects for PTFs development, especially for estimating water retention, at a national scale. The challenge in the development of the Brazilian soil hydrophysical database is the refinement of the dataset model that can encompass the wide range of available information and can provide answers to queries of interest to different types of users of soil information. Considering the size of the Brazilian territory, it would be of interest that the database development become a joint effort of government agencies, universities and commercial enterprises.

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Acknowledgment

The authors thank the Geological Survey of Brazil (CPRM) for the financial and technical support and all researchers and students for providing the data mentioned here.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Hydrology, Companhia de Pesquisa de Recursos Minerais (CPRM), Geological Survey of Brazil, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil

    Marta Vasconcelos Ottoni

  2. Laboratório de Recursos Hídricos e Meio Ambiente (LABH2O), Programa de Engenharia Civil, Instituto Alberto Luiz Coimbra de Pós-Graduação e Pesquisa em Engenharia (COPPE), Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil

    Marta Vasconcelos Ottoni & Otto Corrêa Rotunno Filho

  3. Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection, Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar), Araras, SP, Brazil

    Maria Leonor Ribeiro Casimiro Lopes-Assad

  4. Environmental Microbial and Food Safety Laboratory, USDA-ARS Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, 10300 Baltimore Ave., Bldg. 173, Beltsville, MD, 20705, USA

    Yakov Pachepsky

Authors
  1. Marta Vasconcelos Ottoni
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  2. Maria Leonor Ribeiro Casimiro Lopes-Assad
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  3. Yakov Pachepsky
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  4. Otto Corrêa Rotunno Filho
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Marta Vasconcelos Ottoni .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Soil Physics, Embrapa Soils, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil

    Wenceslau Geraldes Teixeira

  2. Soils Department, Rural Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Seropédica, RJ, Brazil

    Marcos Bacis Ceddia

  3. Department of Hydrology, Companhia de Pesquisa de Recursos Minerais (CPRM), Geological Survey of Brazil, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil

    Marta Vasconcelos Ottoni

  4. Soil Physics, Embrapa Soils, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil

    Guilheme Kangussu Donnagema

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Ottoni, M.V., Lopes-Assad, M.L.R.C., Pachepsky, Y., Rotunno Filho, O.C. (2014). A Hydrophysical Database to Develop Pedotransfer Functions for Brazilian Soils: Challenges and Perspectives. In: Teixeira, W., Ceddia, M., Ottoni, M., Donnagema, G. (eds) Application of Soil Physics in Environmental Analyses. Progress in Soil Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-06013-2_20

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