Employment of Pedo-transfer functions for predicting initial and final infiltration rates using horton model and soil readily available characteristics

Field measurements of initial and final infiltration rates, two important soil characteristics in soil water management, are costly and time consuming. Research efforts are on for determining them by using the Horton model. Pedo-transfer functions (PTFs) were applied for predicting initial and final infiltration rates, and empirical coefficient k of the model using readily available characteristics (RACs) of the soil. Several RACs of the soil besides the soil infiltration curves were determined in 135 different points of East Azarbayjan Province, Iran. The infiltration rates of the model could be predicted reasonably well using the applied PTFs. Applied PTFs resulted in accurate prediction of initial and final infiltration rates of the model with adjusted R² of 0.798 to 0.872 and 0.639 to 0.715, respectively. There was however, low accuracy for the empirical coefficient of the model.