Evaluating Double Cylinder and Dropper Methods in Measuring Hydraulic Conductivity Coefficient

In a successful irrigated agriculture, developing and maintaining soil layer is a fundamental requirement for adjusting moisture, oxygen and appropriate salt needed for plant growth. Water and soil sciences are responsible for investigating water behavior in soil, adjusting moisture, air and appropriate soil for plant growth in the root. In this regard, potential of soil water, moisture and hydraulic conductivity of soil are the most significant physical features of soil which play important role. In most of the hydrological models, hydraulic conductivity of soil is essential as the primary input for measurements. In this research, hydraulic conductivity of soil saturation is determined using dropper and double cylinder methods in loam sandy, loam silty and loam silty-clay soils, and the results of the methods are statistically analyzed. In this research, R2 is calculated as 0.936, which represents aligned change process of both methods that justify each other. However, it was shown that in these soils, saturated hydraulic conductivity coefficients (Ks) of both double cylinder and dropper methods are in accordance with each other. However, dropper method can be used with high accuracy in the soils studied in this paper.