Journal of Earth Sciences and Geotechnical Engineering

Cyclic Water Transfer in the Top Soil of a Landfill

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• Abstract

  This paper describes the changes of water content and the kinetics of water flow under infiltration, redistribution, evaporation, transpiration and freeze and thaw of water in top soils of a landfill, which are needed for the assessment of contaminant transfer. The discussion focuses on (a) infiltration in layered soil and sloping layered soil, and one caused by water flow through channels in soils, (b) the changes of water content under evaporation, which occur in different water flow modes under different evaporation conditions, and (c) water depression due to transpiration, in which water flow originates from a deeper layer below the root zone of vegetation. It is concluded that the theoretical prediction of the changes of water content profiles requires (a) a full understanding of the characteristics of individual water flow in cyclic water transfer and (b) a careful setting of the boundary conditions specified at the soil surface since soil properties such as soil structure and especially unsaturated hydraulic conductivity at surface will easily change over the course of time.