DEVELOPMENT OF VADOSE-ZONE HYDRAULIC PARAMETER VALUES

Several approaches have been developed to establish a relation between the soil-moisture retention curve and readily available soil properties. Those relationships are referred to as pedotransfer functions. Described in this paper are the rationale, approach, and corroboration for use of a nonparametric pedotransfer function for the estimation of soil hydraulic-parameter values at the yucca Mountain area in Nevada for simulations of net infiltration. This approach, shown to be applicable for use at Yucca Mountain, is also applicable for use at the Hanford Site where the underlying data were collected