Comparison of Methods for Estimating Saturated Hydraulic Conductivity of Soil in Palmetum Lands

Saturated hydraulic conductivity of soil (Ks) is an important soil property in the management of irrigation and drainage issues, including areas covered with palm trees. This study was conducted to determine the amount of Ks in the palmetum lands of Bavi city of Khuzestan province. The amount of Ks was also evaluated using field, laboratory methods and Pedotransfer functions. The amount of Ks in five distances of 0.5, 1, 2, 3 and 5 meters from palm trees with three replications by double ring methods, Guelph permeameter, falling head, Rosetta model and Pedotransfer functions of Cosby et al., Ferrer-Julia et al., Campbell and Shiozawa, Dane and Puckett and Puckett et al. were obtained. Evaluation of the results showed that the double ring methods, Rosetta model and Pedotransfer function of Cosby et al. with a geometric mean error ratio of about 1 were more accurate than other methods. The deviation time of these methods were 4.75, 5.31 and 26.14, respectively. The geometric standard deviation error ratios of these methods to the falling head method were 1.10, 1.40 and 2.08, respectively.