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 hasn’t rained. Base flow is very important for fish, invertebrates, aquatic plants and other life during dry spells.

Field Tests 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 24 inch double ring infiltrometer with Mariotte Tubes

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: Horton’s Equation Horton: The infiltration capacity decreases exponentially with time and ultimately reaches a constant rate Infiltration capacity Where f t is the infiltration rate at time t; f 0 is the initial infiltration rate or maximum infiltration rate; f c is the constant or equilibrium infiltration rate after the soil has been saturated or minimum infiltration rate; NOTE e is a number, ~ k is the decay constant specific to the soil. the f’s have units in/hr and k is a time constant hr -1

Horton’s Infiltration Model for soil capacity Infiltration starts at a constant rate, f 0, 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 f c.

In a few minutes we will do an example using Horton’s Equation using an average rectangle estimate to the area under the curve.

Estimates  index Infiltration Volume = total rainfall volume – runoff volume as measured in the rain gages and at the outlet gage, respectively.  assumes infiltration volume resulted from a constant infiltration rate. It assumes a high initial infiltration is balanced by a low later infiltration.

We will find  in this problem by guessing a value for , calculating the total runoff that would result, and comparing our answer to the known runoff. Example: Guessing 