Development of new methodology for 3D soil hydraulic property mapping and testing its application on the catchment of Lake Balaton

The aim of the research is to develop soil hydraulic prediction methods applicable for Hungarian soils and prepare 3D soil hydraulic maps at 100 m resolution for the catchment of Lake Balaton.
Direct measurement of soil hydraulic properties is costly and time consuming, therefore measurement-based catchment scale mapping of these soil properties is not possible. The analysis of databases, which contain data on both general soil properties and measured soil moisture retention capacity and hydraulic conductivity values are essential. The relationships between simple soil characteristics and soil hydraulic properties will be described with mathematical formulas – pedotransfer functions (PTFs). The PTFs will be used to create 3D soil hydraulic property maps based on existing basic soil maps and environmental information.
The applicability of the maps will be tested in hydrological models by comparing the results of simulations versus the measured values from the catchment of Lake Balaton.

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