Comparing the efficiency of some infiltration models in Vertisols and non-Vertisols

In this research, the efficiency of Philip, Kostiakov-Lewis, Soil Conservation Service (SCS) and Horton infiltration models in Verticals and non-Vertisols under two different land uses (rangeland and wheat) with the high and low initial water contents were evaluated. Therefore, the soil water infiltration of the selected sites was measured using single ring method. The parameters of the mentioned models were then obtained using least squares optimization technique. To compare the performance of the models, the mean error (ME), root mean square error (RMSE), mean absolute of mean error (MAME) model efficiency, and Wilmot's index were calculated. The results indicated that at the low initial water content of non-verticals with rangeland land use, the Kostiakov-Lewis model had the best accuracy in describing cumulative infiltration. While, the Philip and Kostiakov models had the highest prediction error of infiltration in the studied soils. The results showed that at the high initial water content of both rangeland and wheat soils the Horton and Philip models predicted the cumulative infiltration with the highest and lowest accuracy, respectively. At the high initial moisture condition the Kostiakov-Lewis and Kostiakov models overestimated and the Horton, Philip and SCS models underestimated the cumulative infiltration. What resulted is the Horton model has the best performance to describe infiltration process at the high initial moisture condition in verticals and non-verticals (RMSE= 0.0783). Whilst, at the low initial moisture condition the Kostiakov-Lewis model had the highest performance in non-verticals (RMSE=0.0596).