USE OF THE RAWLS PEDOTRANSFER FUNCTIONS FOR PREDICTING SOIL WATER RETENTION OF ALLUVIAL SOIL OF THE OASIS GUERRARA-MZAB (SAHARA OF ALGERIA)

AZZOUG Lamia; HAMDI-AISSA Baelhadj

AZZOUG Lamia Université de Ouargla, Faculté des sciences de la nature et de la vie, Laboratoire Biogéchimie des milieux désertiques, Ouargla 30000, Algérie
HAMDI-AISSA Baelhadj Centre de Recherches Scientifique et Technique sur les Régions Arides (CRSTRA), Biskra 07000, Algérie

Keywords: Water content, arid, soil moisture, potential, regressions

Abstract

The study of soils in Algeria especially those of the Sahara is a major concern of Land management and water in arid areas. Most laboratories in developing countries do not have equipment to measure the characteristic curve of soil moisture and this is a major limitation in irrigation scheduling. Regression equations were developed to estimate this physical characteristic using soil composition and bulk density. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the suitability of two of the regression equations developed by Rawls and al. (1982) for predicting water content of oasis Guerrara (Ghardaia, Algeria) soils at two potentials -330 hPa – 15 000 hPa. The taking into account these two water contents as additional explanatory variables appears to have a positive effect on the quality of the estimate.