Development of a soil water dispersion index (SOWADIN) for testing the effectiveness of soil wetting agents
1989
Sawada, Y. | Aylmore, A.G. | Hainsworth, J.M. (Western Australian Univ., Nedlands. School of Agriculture)
Computer-assisted tomography (CAT) applied to gamma-ray attenuation measurements was used to develop an index termed the soil water dispersion index (SOWADIN), which described quantitatively the amount and distribution of water in soil columns. The index, which is determined by classifying pixels in a scanned slice into 3 categories according to their attenuation coefficients, contains 2 numerical values. The first value corresponds to the water content of the scanned slice and the second value is a measure of the dispersion of the water throughout the slice. Experimentally, the SOWADIN values obtained accurately reflected the differences in water distribution associated with different wetting patterns. Application of SOWADIN to coolumns of a water repellent sand before and after treatment with a soil-wetting agent illustrated both the increase in water content and improvement in water distribution in the soil column following treatment.
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