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WATER RESOURCES RESEARCH, VOL. 42, W05301, doi:10.1029/2005WR004085, 2006

Hydropedology: Synergistic integration of pedology and hydrology

Henry Lin

Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA


Johan Bouma

Laboratory of Soil Science and Geology, Wageningen University, Wageningen, Netherlands


Yakov Pachepsky

Environmental Microbial Safety Laboratory, ARS, USDA, Beltsville, Maryland, USA


Andrew Western

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia


James Thompson

Division of Plant and Soil Sciences, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia, USA


Rien van Genuchten

George E. Brown Jr. Salinity Laboratory, ARS, USDA, Riverside, California, USA


Hans-Jörg Vogel

Center for Environmental Research, Halle, Germany


Allan Lilly

Macaulay Land Use Research Institute, Craigiebuckler, UK


Abstract

This paper presents a vision that advocates hydropedology as an advantageous integration of pedology and hydrology for studying the intimate relationships between soil, landscape, and hydrology. Landscape water flux is suggested as a unifying precept for hydropedology, through which pedologic and hydrologic expertise can be better integrated. Landscape water flux here encompasses the source, storage, flux, pathway, residence time, availability, and spatiotemporal distribution of water in the root and deep vadose zones within the landscape. After illustrating multiple knowledge gaps that can be addressed by the synergistic integration of pedology and hydrology, we suggest five scientific hypotheses that are critical to advancing hydropedology and enhancing the prediction of landscape water flux. We then present interlinked strategies for achieving the stated vision. It is our hope that by working together, hydrologists and pedologists, along with scientists in related disciplines, can better guide data acquisition, knowledge integration, and model-based prediction so as to advance the hydrologic sciences in the next decade and beyond.

Received 6 March 2005; accepted 9 February 2006; published 9 May 2006.

Keywords: catchment hydrology; landscape processes; scale; soil hydrology; soil physics; vadose zone.

Index Terms: 1866 Hydrology: Soil moisture; 1875 Hydrology: Vadose zone.

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Citation: Lin, H., J. Bouma, Y. Pachepsky, A. Western, J. Thompson, R. van Genuchten, H.-J. Vogel, and A. Lilly (2006), Hydropedology: Synergistic integration of pedology and hydrology, Water Resour. Res., 42, W05301, doi:10.1029/2005WR004085.