Water Wheel March/April 2020: Soil Science

Abstract

Regional soil information for hydrological modelling in South Africa Soils act as a first order control on hydrological processes by partitioning rainfall into overland flow or infiltration. The fate of the infiltrated water (e.g. storage, deep drainage, lateral flow etc.) is largely determined by soil properties and their spatial distribution. Although hydrologists agree that soils play a very important role in the hydrological functioning of landscapes, they often lack the skill to interpret existing soil information. This problem is heightened by the fact that soil data has mostly been generated for agricultural purposes, such as land potential and fertilizer requirements, with little effort to make the soil data user-friendly for non-soil scientists. The consequence is that soil information is often misused in hydrological models and soil parameters are often only used for calibration of hydrological models. With enhanced computing power, spatially distributed hydrological models are capable of handling details of landscape heterogeneity better. Some models (e.g.

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