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Curve Number Values for Olive Orchards under Different Soil Management
Author(s) -
Romero P.,
Castro G.,
Gómez J.A.,
Fereres E.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
soil science society of america journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.836
H-Index - 168
eISSN - 1435-0661
pISSN - 0361-5995
DOI - 10.2136/sssaj2007.0034
Subject(s) - surface runoff , runoff curve number , antecedent moisture , hydrology (agriculture) , environmental science , soil conservation , olive trees , runoff model , water content , soil science , water balance , mathematics , geology , geography , horticulture , ecology , geotechnical engineering , archaeology , biology , agriculture
The Soil Conservation Service curve number methodology (SCS‐CN) has been used in hydrological and crop models to evaluate the effects of soil management in olive ( Olea europaea L. subsp. europaea ) orchards on runoff, erosion, and water balance. To our knowledge, it has never been calibrated or validated for olive orchards. A physically based runoff model for olive orchards at a hillslope scale was used to generate rainfall–runoff relationships for different scenarios of soil type (four), tree size (two), tree spacing (two), antecedent soil moisture (three), and soil management (11) for a 140‐m‐long and 5% steep hillslope. The resulting relationships were used to derive the values of the curve number parameter, CN d , for the SCS‐CN methodology. The resulting CN d values were validated using rainfall–runoff data for three different locations and different soil management. Predictions of daily runoff using CN d were compared with those made using CN values extracted from the standard SCS‐CN tables, CN SCS The derived CN d values presented a root mean square error in runoff predictions between 0.5 and 7.3 mm, and a model efficiency between 82 and 97%. The extracted CN SCS values presented a root mean square error in runoff predictions between 1.4 and 10.4 mm, and a model efficiency between −81 and 89%. Our analysis identified some issues in the hydrology of olive orchards where our understanding remains limited. Among them are the need for further validation of the derived CN values given the limited rainfall–runoff data, and the effect of soil management on soil properties and their temporal evolution.