ABSTRACT
Water entry into the soil by inltration is among the most important of soil hydrological processes, as it controls the partitioning between runo and soil water storage. Runo water determines the surface water’s quantity and quality, whereas inltrated water determines the plant’s available water, evapotranspiration, groundwater recharge, and groundwater quality. Also through exinltration, inltrated water can aect the surface water’s characteristics as in riparian zones. Yet, despite its relevance and our solid physical understanding of inltration, we have generally great diculty in predicting the inltration in the eld at larger spatial scales. Mostly, this is so because the inltration rate is a time-varying quantity that is highly dependent on soil properties that are generally highly variable in space, both in the vertical and horizontal directions of the hydrologic basin. Moreover, inltration rate and runo are aected by vegetation cover, as it protects the soil’s surface from the energy impacts of falling rain drops or intercepting rainfall, serving as a temporary water storage. e kinetic energy of rainfall causes soil degradation, leading to soil surface sealing and decreasing inltration.
