PROGRESS IN GEOGRAPHY ›› 2010, Vol. 29 ›› Issue (7): 855-860.doi: 10.11820/dlkxjz.2010.07.012

• Original Articles • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Progress in the Research of Soil Water Repellency and Its Influences on Overland Flow Generation

MIN Leilei1,2, YU Jingjie1   

  1. 1. Key Laboratory of Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, CAS, Beijing 100101, China|
    2. Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
  • Received:2010-01-01 Revised:2010-05-01 Online:2010-07-25 Published:2010-07-25

Abstract:

Water repellency (hydrophobicity) is a property of soils which increases local overland flow and causes soil degradation and has been concerned broadly. Important advances in the researches on the temporal and spatial variation of water repellency and its effects on overland flow generation have been achieved since 2000. This review summaries the last decade work on the effects of soil water repellency on surface runoff generation on the base of reviewing the cause, measurement and temporal and spatial variation of soil water repellency. The main effects include: 1) it has the effects of increasing the infiltration rate and surface runoff significantly and changing the pattern of runoff generation; 2) the persistency and the intensity of soil water repellency are the key factors affecting surface runoff generation; 3) the influence of soil water repellency on runoff generation has scale effects. The influence is significant at point and plot scales, while not notable at a lager scale. However, the impacts of soil water repellency on overland flow generation should be further clarified and researched quantitatively. Soil water repellency, as a factor affecting runoff generation, should be considered in the future researches on runoff generation.

Key words: infiltration, overland flow generation, soil water repellency