ICAR - Central Arid Zone Research Institute

Regression based pedotransfer functions (PTFs) have been developed to estimate soil water retention at 1/3 bar (FC) and 15 bar (PWP) from available soil data in hot arid western India. Developed models have further validated and tested in independent datasets and have been found satisfactory. For wide applicability of the developed PTFs, an user interface was prepared using Microsoft visual studio version 6.0. Drop-down menus were created to include the options to choose a particular PTF models. Apart from PTFs developed in this study, established PTFs were also included in the list. Provisions were made to indicate the required input field only active as per selected PTF model. Restrictions were also included so that the proportion of sand, silt and clay should add to 100 %. Programming codes were written to estimate Q_1/3bar or Q_15bar following the selected PTF model, and to calculate available water capacity by following the formula:

Where Q_AWC is the available water capacity of soil in mm, Q_1/3bar and Q_15bar are the estimated soil water retention in %, wt/wt.
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