Aplicación de modelos matemáticos para la obtención de la curva de retención de humedad del suelo
Abstract
In modern agriculture the use of mathematical models is increasing to predict water and solute movement in
the vadose zone of porous media. Thus, it is needed to know the soil hydraulic properties, among those that
are the moisture content curve. This curve is obtained from various analytical models; however, they had not
been evaluated with the Cuban soils. Furthermore, five analytical models were compared with 570 samples
collected from different soils and regions of country, in the period 1990-2003. This evaluation uses the
criteria of Square Quadratic Residuals (SQR), the variation coefficient (r2), and the standard error. As a result,
the Van Genuchten model with condition m = 1-1/n shows the best adjustment between measured and
estimated values, with ranges of the SQR between 0.05x10-3 and 2.86x10-3 g g-1 and r2 more than 0.92. When
using this model with data coming from altered or unaltered samples, appreciable variations were not
obtained in the resulting curves for the tensions from 0 to 100 cm. It use to model, as well as of the estimated
parameters for each soil groups can be used in the estimation of the necessary moisture content curve by the
simulation models.