Comparison between different infiltration models to describe the infiltration of permeable brick pavement system via lab-scale experiment

Permeable brick pavement system (PBPs) is one of a widely used low impact development (LID) measures to alleviate runoff volume and pollution caused by urbanization. The performance of PBPs on decreasing runoff volume is decided by its permeability, and it was general described by hydraulic conductivity based on Darcy's law. But there is large error when using hydraulic conductivity to describe the infiltration of PBPs, and which infiltration process is not following to the Darcy's law, so it is important to found a more accurate infiltration models to describe the infiltration of PBPs. The Horton, Philip, Green-Ampt, and Kostiakov infiltration models were selected to found an optimal model to investigate infiltration performance of PBPs via lab-scale experiment, and the maximum absolute error (MAE), Bias, and coefficient of determination (R2) were selected to evaluate the models' errors via fitting with experiment data. The results showed that the fitting accuracy of Kostiakov, Philip, and Green-Ampt models was significantly affected by the monitoring area and hydraulic gradients. Meanwhile, Horton model is fitting well (MAE = 0.25–0.32 cm/h, Bias = 0.07–0.11 cm/h, and R2 = 0.98–0.99) with the experiment data, and the parameters of Horton model often can be achieved by monitoring, such as the maximum infiltration rate and the stable infiltration rate. Therefore, the Horton model is an optimal model to describe the infiltration performance of PBPs, which can also be adopt to evaluate hydrological characterization of PBPs.

A quick fix for modeling infiltration in water-repellent soils

<p>Water repellency occurs in soils under a wide spectrum of conditions. Soil water repellency can originate from the deposition of resinous materials and exudates from vegetation, vaporization and condensation of organic compounds during fires, or the presence of anthropogenic-derived chemicals like petroleum products, wastewater or other urban contaminants. Its effects on soils range from mild to severe, and it often leads to hydrophobic conditions that can significantly impact the infiltration response with effects extending to the watershed-scale. Those effects are often time-dependent, making it a challenge to simulate infiltration behaviors of water-repellent soils using standard infiltration models. Here, we introduce a single rate-constant parameter (α<sub>WR</sub>) and propose a simple correction term (1-e<sup>-αWRt</sup>) to modify models for infiltration rate. This term starts with a value of zero at the beginning of the infiltration experiment (t = 0) and asymptotically approaches 1 as time increases, thus simulating a decreasing effect of soil water repellency through time. The correction term can be added to any infiltration model (one- two- or three-dimensional) and will account for the water repellency effect. Results from 165 infiltration experiments from different ecosystems and wide range of water repellency effects validated the effectiveness of this simple method to characterize water repellency in infiltration models. Tested with the simple two-term infiltration equation developed by Philip, we obtained consistent and substantial error reductions, particularly for more repellent soils. Furthermore, results revealed that soils that were burned during a wildfire had smaller α<sub>WR</sub> values compared to unburned controls, thus indicating that the magnitude of α<sub>WR</sub> may have a physical basis.</p>