Journal of Hydrology 210 (1998) 116127

A model to couple overland ow and inltration into macroporous vadose zone

H. Ruan a, T.H. Illangasekare b*
a

USDA-ARS-NPA, Great Plains System Research Unit, P.O. Box E, 301 S. Howes Street, Fort Collins, CO 80522, USA b Division of Environmental Science and Engineering, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO 80401-1887, USA Received 17 March 1997; received in revised form 9 June 1998; accepted 9 June 1998

Abstract Most vegetated land surfaces contain macropores that may have a signicant effect on the rate of inltration of water under ponded conditions on the ground surface. Owing to the small-scale variations of the land topography (microtopography), only portions of the land area may get ponded during the process of overland ow. As the macropores transmit water at much higher rates than the primary soil matrix, higher macropore activation in ponded areas produces larger effective inltration rates into the soil. Therefore, overland ow and inltration into the macroporous vadose zone are interrelated. Representing the microtopographic variation of the land surface by a simple sine wave function, a method was developed to relate the ponding area to the average ponding depth which was determined by overland ow. A numerical model coupling overland ow and inltration into the macroporous vadose zone was developed. Overland ow was simulated using the St. Venant equations with the inertia terms neglected. A single macropore model was used to simulate the inltration into the macroporous vadose zone. The interaction between overland ow and the inltration into the macroporous vadose zone was analyzed for a hypothetical watershed. The sensitivity analysis revealed that the interaction of macropore ow and overland ow is signicant. For the conditions tested, the macropore ow and the overland ow were found to be more sensitive to the macroporosity and less sensitive to the microtopographic surface variation. 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Macropore ow; Overland ow; Inltration; Vadose zone; Simulation and interaction

1. Introduction Field soils in vegetated areas are often macroporous. Earth worm holes and decayed root channels are common in eld soils. Flow in macroporous soils exhibits considerably non-uniform velocities. Such phenomena are referred to as preferential ow (Beven, 1991). Flow in soils with rectangular or cylindrical macropores (cracks, decayed root channels, and earth worm holes) is often described by
* Corresponding author. Fax: +1 303 273 3413; e-mail: tillanga@ mines.edu

the geometry-based approach (Edwards et al., 1979; Beven and Clarke, 1986). The total inltration rate into macroporous soils is determined by both inltration into the soil matrix and ow into the macropores. Macropore ow is initiated when there is surface ponding. Small depressions are ponded rst owing to the microtopography of the soil surface. Only the macropores in ponded areas are activated when water enters the macropores open at the ground surface, and the ponded areas change with overland ow. Therefore, macropore ow can be affected by overland ow. Although macropore ow and overland ow are

0022-1694/98/$ - see front matter 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII S0022-169 4(9 8)00179-6

H. Ruan, T.H. Illangasekare/Journal of Hydrology 210 (1998) 116127

117

interrelated, overland ow has not been considered as a possible controlling factor in macropore ow. The primary purpose of this research is to understand and model the combined and interrelated ow system, including macropore ow, soil matrix ow, and overland ow. As a comprehensive data set for validation was not available, this model is presented as a theoretical model that will help in providing insights to the coupled processes of overland ow and macropore ow. Such a model can be used in the design of future eld experiments.

convenient to use cylindrical coordinates. Using three-dimensional cylindrical coordinates, Richards equation can be written as (Edwards et al., 1979)     dv h (h z) 1 h = K + rK dh t z z r r r   1 h K + 2 1 J r J where h is the pressure head of soil water, v is the water content (which is a function of h), K is the unsaturated hydraulic conductivity (which is a function h or v), z is the vertical coordinate (downward as positive), r is the radius coordinate, and J is the angle coordinate. Assuming that the pressure head is symmetrical in J coordinate (radially axisymmetric), Eq. (1) becomes the two-dimensional Richards equation in cylindrical coordinates (Bruggeman and Mostaghimi, 1991)     dv h (h z) 1 h = K rK + (2) dh t z z r r r The Galerkin nite element method is chosen to solve Eq. (2) to obtain the water pressure head h and, subsequently, the water content distribution within the soil matrix. Matrix ow is two-dimensional in axissymmetrical coordinates and has four different boundaries (see Fig. 1). The soils macroporosity is used to determine the column radius. Macroporosity is dened as the total cross-sectional areas of macropores in a unit surface area. Macroporosity equals cross-sectional area of a macropore a times the number of macropores per unit surface area b. The surface area of the column A s is then equal to 1/b (see Fig. 1). The number of macropores per unit surface area is not always an integer. The ow in macropores is simplied. It is assumed that macropores in ponding areas are fully lled with water. Also, the volume of water in macropores is negligible compared with the rainfall. The macropores in non-ponding areas are empty. To solve Eq. (2), the relationships between water content v and pressure head h and between unsaturated hydraulic conductivity K and pressure head h or water content v are required. In this model, there are four options to input the rst relationship (the retention curve), namely (1) Brooks and Coreys model (Corey, 1994), (2) van Genuchtens model

2. Flow in macropores and soil matrix The geometry-based approach describes ow in macropores (macropore ow), ow in the soil matrix (matrix ow), and the interactions between the two ows based on the geometry of the macropores. This approach was developed basically for ow in soils with cylindrical macropores, of which the geometry is relatively simple. The macropore-geometry model developed by Edwards et al. (1979) uses simplied macropore ow conditions. Edwards et al. (1979) suggest a two-dimensional model of ow through a vertical cylindrical macropore in the center of the soil cylinder. They used Richards equation for the ow in the soil matrix and a mass balance for the ow in the macropore. In undisturbed eld soils the majority of macropores formed by earthworm holes and decayed root channels are cylindrically shaped (Beven and Germann, 1982). In this research, only cylindrical macropores are considered and the geometry-based approach for ow modeling is used. Macropore ow in the vadose zone is initiated only during intensive rainfall or irrigation events and, therefore, occurs only in a short period of time. Within such a short period of time during a storm event, evapotranspiration is negligible. Because most macropores are vertically oriented, they are assumed to be vertical in most model formulations (Beven and Germann, 1982) including the one presented in this paper. Richards equation is generally accepted as being adequate to describe ow in the soil matrix in a macroporous system. Because ow in the vicinity of a single macropore is almost axisymmetrical, it is

118

H. Ruan, T.H. Illangasekare/Journal of Hydrology 210 (1998) 116127

Fig. 1. Schematic of a single-macropore ow model.

(van Genuchten, 1980), (3) the exponential model (Russo et al., 1991), and (4) linear interpolation from a data set which is measured from a retention curve. There are also four options for the second relationship Kh or Kv. The rst three options are established using the rst three models of the retention curve combined with Mualems model (Mualem, 1976). The fourth option of Kh or Kv is linear interpolation using measured data from long column or other methods (Green et al., 1986).

(Abbott et al., 1986). In kinematic wave formulations the two-dimensional components of the velocity vector are given by
1=2 2=3 u = kx Ix hp 1=2 2=3 hp v = ky Iy

(3) (4)

The continuity equation is given by hp (uhp ) (vhp ) = + +R I t x y (5)

3. Overland ow Overland ow is a term used to describe twodimensional ow over an inclined land surface. In most situations of overland ow the frictional force is dominant since the water depth is shallow. Under this condition, the kinematic wave equation is accepted to be adequate to describe overland ow

where u and v are the ow velocities in the x and y directions respectively, h p is the ponding depth which will be formulated for the undulating surfaces, k x and k y are the Strickler roughness coefcients for the x and y directions, I x and I y are the water surface gradients in the x and y directions, R is the rain intensity, and I is the inltration rate which includes the inltration into both the soil matrix and macropores. The boundary conditions depend on inow and outow conditions at a particular site. A certain minimum

H. Ruan, T.H. Illangasekare/Journal of Hydrology 210 (1998) 116127

119

Fig. 2. A hypothetical watershed.

ponding depth is necessary to initiate overland ow (Luce and Cundy, 1992). The water surface gradients I x and I y are given by Ix = Iy = (zs + hp ) x (zs + hp ) y (6) (7)

4. Interaction between macropore and overland ow The slope of the land surface elevation can be divided into two components. The rst component is the regional slope variation which is represented by the constant slope (z s/x, z s/y) within each nite grid. The second component is random slope variation, which occurs at a much smaller scale (Fig. 3). In the classical formulation of overland ow using Eq. (8), this random variation of soil surface elevation (microtopography) is not considered. However, these random variations play an important role in the initiation of macropore ow. The relationship between the macropore fraction that is activated and the average ponding depth is complex. In this formulation, the following

where z s is the elevation of the land surface. Substituting Eqs. (3) and (4) into the continuity equation in Eq. (5) yields hp 1=2 5=3 = (k I 1=2 h5=3 ) + (ky Iy hp ) + R I t x x x p y (8)

Eq. (8) is a non-linear partial differential equation. A simulation domain of overland ow is shown in Fig. 2.

120

H. Ruan, T.H. Illangasekare/Journal of Hydrology 210 (1998) 116127

Fig. 3. Variation of land surface within an area of less than 1 m 2 and macropore ow activation (cm).

assumptions are made in order to examine the primary interaction between overland ow and macropore ow and to avoid the complicated description of the random variation of ground elevation as dened by the microtopography. First, only the mean values of the random variation are considered. The variation is

assumed as a sine wave with a constant amplitude (Fig. 3(a)) hs = A sin(qxs ) cos(qys ) (9)

where h s is the soil surface height from the average soil surface elevation z s, A is the amplitude of the

H. Ruan, T.H. Illangasekare/Journal of Hydrology 210 (1998) 116127

121

microtopographic variation, y s is a coordinate axis parallel to the ow direction, x s is the axis perpendicular to the ow direction, and q is the frequency of the variation along the x s and y s directions. Fig. 3(a) shows the microtopographic variation based on Eq. (9). The ow direction changes at different locations. It should be noted that x s and y s are not xed axes, as they vary with the ow direction which changes at different locations. Water ponded on the soil surface described by Eq. (9) cannot ow before the depressions are lled. In this initial development, we further assumed that the microtopographic surface varies only in the x s direction (perpendicular to the ow direction) so that all ponded water can ow as overland ow. In this case, the microtopographic variation of the soil surface (Fig. 3(b)) is written as hs = A sin(qxs ) (10) xs0 hav =
xs0 (p=q)

ponding depth h av is used to represent the ponding depth and is dened as the ponding water volume divided by the ponding area. The control area is used again to derive the average ponding depth. The ponding area in the control area is 2x s0 + p/q. The ponding water volume in the control area is computed in two parts. The rst part is the volume from point a to point b and between the x s axis and the soil surface. The second part is the volume from point a to point b and between the x s axis and the water surface. The ponding water volume is the rst part minus the second part. This rst part volume v1 can be obtained using integration xs0 [ A sin(qxs )] dxs (12) v1 =
xs0 (p=q)

The second part volume v2 is simply v2 = A sin(qxs0 )[2xs0 + (p=q)] Therefore, the average ponding depth is [ A sin(qxs )] dxs [ A sin(qxs0 )][2xs0 + (p=q)] 2xs0 + (p=q) (14) (13)

The relation between ponding depth and ponding area can be obtained using a control area which is dened as a unit length in the y s direction by a length of 2p/q in the x s direction (Fig. 3(b)). The ponding area (from point a to point b of Fig. 3(c)) within the control area equals the length from point a to point b times the unit length in the y s direction (Fig. 3(c)). The length from point a to point b equals x s0 (x s0 p/q) which is 2x s0 + p/q. Because the control area represents the whole soil surface, the relative ponding area of the control area equals the relative ponding area for the whole soil surface. The relative ponding area A p is dened as the ponding area per unit soil surface area (i.e. total ponding area divided by the total soil surface area). A p is written as Ap = 2xs0 + (p=q) 2p =q (11)

The average ponding depth over the ponding area h av is considered to be the ponding depth h p in Eq. (8). Combining Eqs. (11) and (14), x s0 can be eliminated and an expression for average ponding depth can be derived as hav = A [cos(pAp + p)pAp sin(pAp + p)] pAp (15)

where x s0 is the x s value at the right-side ponding boundary (point b) (Fig. 3(c)). The ponding depth changes with x s. The average

Using Eq. (15), the average ponding depth can be obtained if the relative ponded area is known. If the average ponding depth is known, the relative ponded area is difcult to get from Eq. (15). A trial and error method or interpolation from an h av A p table needs to be used to obtain the ponding area from the average ponding depth. When h av A, all the macropores are activated. Also, macropores are assumed to be evenly distributed over the land surface. It is reasonable to assume that macropores in the ponding area are fully activated, i.e. fully lled with water. The total ow within each grid is obtained by summing the ow in

122

H. Ruan, T.H. Illangasekare/Journal of Hydrology 210 (1998) 116127

all activated macropores within the grid inuence zone. As ow can occur only in the area where there is ponding, overland ow can only be computed when the ponding area is known. Initial conditions are set for conditions of no overland ow and hence zero ponding area. During simulations, when overland ow rst occurs, the ponding area is computed by setting the excess water (excess rain water after inltration) equal to the volume of ponded water (mass balance). The ponded water in terms of depth over the whole area equals the average ponding depth h av times the relative ponding area A p. Therefore, the excess rain water over inltration h ex when starting to pond is hex = hav Ap = A [cos(pAp + p)pAp sin(pAp + p)] p (16) As the ponding area (A p2p/q) at the current time step is not known, the ponding area at the previous time step is used to approximate A p in Eq. (16). Before the activation of any macropores, the inltration at the rst time step is only due to matrix inltration. At subsequent time steps the macropore ow is computed and is included as a sink term in the mass balance analysis to compute the average ponding depth. For each time step, iterations of the computations are incorporated to keep a proper mass balance. In the formulation of the continuity equation in Eq. (8), it is assumed that overland ow occurs on all the land surface. Hence, to incorporate the fact that overland ow occurs only in the ponded area, Eq. (8) needs to be modied. The excess water, which is the difference between rainfall and inltration (R I) over all the land surface, is accumulated only in the ponded area A p. Therefore, the modied governing equation for overland ow with macropore activation is hp = Ap (k I 1=2 h5=3 ) + Ap (k I 1=2 h5=3 ) Ap t x x x p y y y p + (R I ) 17 or hp 1=2 5=3 = (k I 1=2 h5=3 ) + (ky Iy hp ) + (R I )=Ap t x x x p y (18)

Although the channel ow due to the microtopography is different from the overland ow, we still assume that within each channel the ow is similar to the overland ow. The term I in Eq. (18) includes the inltration directly into the land surface I i and macropore ow I m I = Ii + Im (19)

The macropore ow I m is computed using a single macropore ow model. Macropores which are activated at different times can have different ow rates at a given time. Two factors affect rate of ow through macropores. The rst is the water content near the macropore when the macropore is activated. As the water content in the vicinity of a macropore is dened by the time-dependent water content in the soil matrix, the initial water contents at macropore activation will change with time due to the preceding vertical inltration. The later the macropore is activated during a storm or ood event, the deeper the wetting front, and the higher the initial water content. The high initial water content around macropores can decrease the macropore ow rate by decreasing the lateral inltration from macropores into the soil matrix. Fig. 4(a) demonstrates the macropore ow rate of two macropores that are activated at different times. Macropore 2 has a lower ow rate when activated compared with macropore 1. The second factor that affects macropore ow rate is the time interval Dt between the specied time (the current time step of the numerical simulation) and the macropore activation time (the time when the soil surface near the macropore is ponded). The longer the time interval, the smaller the macropore ow rate due to the downward migration of the wetting front. In other words, macropore ow of a single macropore decreases with time (Fig. 4(a)). In the present formulation a uniform and high rainfall intensity is assumed, so that once a ponding area is formed it does not become unponded during the simulation. When ponding area increases the macropores in the newly ponded area become activated. At each time step after starting of ponding new macropores get activated. In implementing the model algorithm to a computer code, it is too complex to simulate all the macropores that have different activation times and initial water contents because of the large simulation effort needed for a single macropore. Macropores that

H. Ruan, T.H. Illangasekare/Journal of Hydrology 210 (1998) 116127

123

Fig. 4. (a) A sketch of macropore ow that changes with time and its activation time. (b) Simulated ow rate of macropores which are activated in 15 specied times.

124

H. Ruan, T.H. Illangasekare/Journal of Hydrology 210 (1998) 116127

Table 1 Soil properties (Brooks and Corey model) Saturated hydraulic conductivity (cm h 1) Layer 1 Layer 2 1.0 0.5 Displacement head (cm) 35 35 Pore distribution index 0.36 0.36 Water content (v/v) Residual 0.1 0.1 Saturated 0.46 0.40 Initial 0.2 0.25 6.5 73.5 Depth (cm)

are activated within a time period are assumed to have the same macropore ow rate. In Fig. 4(a), macropore 2 represents all macropores (a group) that are activated between (t1 + t2)/2 and (t2 + t3)/2. Therefore, only a limited number of macropores are simulated and used for the sink term I m in the overland ow computation. The macropore ow I m is the summation of time-varying ow of different groups of macropores that are activated at different times Im = [Qmj (tk tj )Apj ]=As
j=1 j=k

where I io is the inltration computed using a onedimensional ow model. The special case of the macropore ow model without a macropore is used as the one-dimensional ow model in this study. 5. Simulation of a hypothetical watershed and sensitivity analysis As no comprehensive experimental or eld data set was available for model testing, a hypothetical watershed was used to examine the interaction between macropore ow and overland ow based on the governing equations developed in the previous sections. The watershed is a rectangle (100 50 m 2) and varies in its elevation (Fig. 2). The surface elevation was designed so that there is no water ow through boundaries except the downstream boundary (see the dashed line in Fig. 2). Water was discharged from the watershed into a river (the dashed line). The following function has the four boundary conditions of the required watershed      y x + cos p z = Z 1 + sin p 2y0 x0 (24)

(20)

where t k is the current time, t j is the time at the beginning of the jth time interval, Q mj(Dt) is the macropore ow rate at time Dt = t k t j after activation for macropores that are activated within the jth time interval, and A pj is the area fraction that is ponded within the jth time interval Ap (tk ) = Apj
j=1 j=k

(21)

In the classical formulation of inltration from land surfaces, the total inltration I i includes the inltration through the ponding area I i1 and the non-ponding area I i2. The surface inltration into the ponding area I i1 is computed using the single macropore ow model in a similar way to I m Ii1 = [Qimj (tk tj )Apj ]=As
j=1 j=k

(22)

where Q imj(Dt) is the classical ponded inltration rate into the ponded soil surface computed using the single macropore ow model in a similar way to Q mj(Dt). The inltration into the non-ponding area I i2 is computed using a one-dimensional vertical inltration ow model Ii2 = Iio (1 Ap ) (23)

where z is the surface elevation, Z is one-third of the maximum elevation difference and is used to change the land slope, x and y are the coordinates, and x 0 and y 0 are the lengths in the x and y directions respectively. The Strickler roughness coefcient is selected between 1 and 10 (Bathurst, 1986). The soil properties are assumed to be homogeneous horizontally and layered in the vertical direction. Brooks and Coreys model (Corey, 1994) was used for the retention and hydraulic conductivity functions. The values of Brooks and Coreys parameters are listed in Table 1. Rainfall intensity was 3.6 cm h 1.

H. Ruan, T.H. Illangasekare/Journal of Hydrology 210 (1998) 116127

125

Fig. 5. Break up of rainfall for eight different scenarios at different times.

As stated in Section 4, macropore ow was computed for macropores which are activated at 15 times, namely at 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 21, 23, 25, 27, 29 min. Each one of them represents a time interval of 2 min. (02, 24, and so on). Macropore size was assumed to be 4 mm and macropore length was 40 cm. The results of the 15 macropore ows are

plotted in Fig. 4(b). These results were used to calculate the total macropore ow in a unit land area using Eq. (20). Different values of the Strickler roughness coefcient, the slope parameter Z, the microtopographic variation A, and macroporosity were used to examine the sensitivity of the overland ow (and thus

126

H. Ruan, T.H. Illangasekare/Journal of Hydrology 210 (1998) 116127

the total inltration) to these parameters. For the reference scenario (number 4), the Strickler roughness coefcient was 10, Z = 1.0 m, microtopographic variation amplitude A = 1.0 cm, and macroporosity was 0.00035. The frequency q is assumed to be one over one unit of length, although q is eliminated in the computation. To evaluate overland ow, the total discharge into the river (cumulative discharge volume per unit land area) is plotted versus time. Also, the cumulative ponding water (volume per unit land area) is plotted versus time for mass balance purposes. The cumulative ponding water is that part of the total water volume that belongs to neither macropore ow nor overland ow. For comparison, three simple scenarios of overland ow were rst simulated without macropore ow. The rst scenario was simply a smooth watershed without any inltration. There was no microtopographic variation of the land surface. The second scenario is the same as the rst scenario except with microtopographic variations perpendicular to the ow direction (A = 1.0 cm). The results are plotted in Fig. 5(a) for scenario 1 and Fig. 5(b) for scenario 2. The smooth surface retained more water than the rough surface scenario. It should be pointed out that dead ponding (where water is retained and cannot ow) was not considered. It was assumed that all ponding water can ow as overland ow and that the ow direction is not affected by the microtopographic variation. The reason for the discrepancy between scenario 1 and scenario 2 is that the averaged water depth of the geometrically rough surface (Eq. (14)) is larger than that of the geometrically smooth surface when A is much larger than the water depth. The third scenario was the same as the second scenario except for adding the inltration into the soil surface (without considering macropore ow). The results are plotted in Fig. 5(c). Much less water was discharged into the river and was retained on the land compared with the rst two scenarios. The reason is obvious, since some water inltrated the soil. The fourth scenario was modied from the third scenario by adding macropore ow with macroporosity equal to 0.00035. The fourth scenario was also the reference scenario for the following four scenarios (the fth to eighth scenarios). The results are shown in Fig. 5(d). The amount of discharge into the river and the ponding

water was decreased further due to more water owing into the soil. To examine the sensitivity of the macropore ow and overland ow to four land characteristics, four more scenarios were designed based on the fourth scenario (the reference scenario). The fth scenario was designed to examine the ow sensitivity to the Strickler roughness coefcient by decreasing it from 10 to 5 (the actual roughness is increased). Macropore ow increased by 0.05 cm (10%) compared with the reference scenario at 30 min (always compared with the reference and at 30 min for all the last four scenarios). Ponding depth increased by 50% and the discharge decreased 30% (Fig. 5(e)). A higher roughness (or lower Strickler roughness coefcient) decreased the overland ow, increased the ponding depth and, therefore, increased the macropore ow. The sixth scenario was designed to examine the sensitivity to the microtopographic variation amplitude A by decreasing it from 1.0 cm to 0.5 cm. The total macropore ow increased 30%. The ponding water remained the same and the discharge decreased (Fig. 5(f)). With a smaller microtopographic variation the ponding area is larger with the same ponding depth and, therefore, macropore ow increases. The seventh scenario was designed to examine the sensitivity to the change of the land surface slope by decreasing Z from 1.0 m to 0.5 m. The maximum surface elevation difference (3Z) was decreased from 3 m to 1.5 m. Macropore ow increased 7%. The ponding water increased 15%. The discharge decreased 18% (Fig. 5(g)). A watershed with a smaller slope has less overland ow and thus more macropore ow. The last scenario was designed to examine the sensitivity to the macroporosity by doubling the macroporosity from 0.00035 to 0.0007. The macropore ow was also doubled (100%). Both ponding and discharge water volumes were signicantly decreased (Fig. 5(h)). The results of the last ve scenarios showed that the macroporosity was, relatively speaking, the most sensitive characteristic. The land slope was the least sensitive characteristic. Although the macropore ow and the overland ow may not change linearly with these four characteristics, the results obtained here show qualitative sensitivities to the characteristics in the ranges of the values examined.

H. Ruan, T.H. Illangasekare/Journal of Hydrology 210 (1998) 116127

127

6. Conclusions Many researchers have studied macropore ow in macroporous soils. In their analyses the macropore activation was simplied. It was assumed that macropores are activated uniformly in the eld and that all excess rain water ows into macropores uniformly. However, land surface may not necessarily be at or smooth. Macropores are activated non-uniformly, depending on the microtopography of the land surface. Some macropores may not be activated at all, whereas others are activated as soon as excess water is generated. Macropores may be activated only in the ponding area. The ponding area is decreased by overland ow. Therefore, macropore activation and macropore ow can be affected by overland ow and vice versa. A numerical model coupling overland ow and inltration into the layered macroporous vadose zone was developed. Overland ow was simulated using the St. Venant equations with the inertia terms neglected. A single macropore model was used to simulate the inltration into the macroporous vadose zone. Assuming the microtopographic variation of the land surface is a sine wave perpendicular to the ow direction, an equation was established to relate the ponding area to the average ponding depth. The sensitivity analysis of the interaction for a hypothetical watershed revealed that macropore ow and overland ow can affect each other signicantly. The macropore ow and the overland ow were more sensitive to the macroporosity and less sensitive to the microtopographic variation.

Laj Ahuja for his suggestions on the manuscript of this paper, and the reviewers, Han Stricker and Joel Goldenfum, for their valuable comments. References
Abbott, M.B., Bathurst, J.C., Cunge, J.A., OConnell, P.E., Rasmussen, J., 1986. An introduction to the European Hydrological SystemSysteme Hydrologique European, SHE, 2: structure of a physically-based, distributed modelling system, J. Hydrol., 87, 6177. Bathurst, J.C., 1986. Physical-based distributed modelling of an upland catchment using the Systeme Hydrologique Europeen, J. Hydrol., 87, 79102. Beven, K., 1991. Modeling preferential ow: an uncertain future? In: Gish, T.J., Shirmohammadi, A. (Eds.), Preferential Flow, pp. 111. American Society of Agricultural Engineers, St. Joseph, Michigan. Beven, K.J., Clarke, R.T., 1986. On the variation of inltration into a homogeneous soil matrix containing a population of macropores, Water Resour. Res., 22 (3), 383388. Beven, K., Germann, P., 1982. Macropores and water ow in soils, Water Resour. Res., 18 (5), 13111325. Bruggeman, A.C., Mostaghimi, S., 1991. Simulation of preferential ow and solute transport using an efcient nite element model, In: Gish, T.J., Shirmohammadi, A. (Eds.), Preferential Flow, pp. 244255. American Society of Agricultural Engineers, St. Joseph, Michigan. Corey, A.T., 1994. Mechanics of Immiscible Fluids in Porous Media. Water Resources Publications, Highlands Ranch, CO, p. 252. Edwards, W.M., van der Ploeg, R.R., Ehlers, W., 1979. A numerical study of the effects of noncapillary-sized pores upon inltration, Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J., 43, 851856. Green, R.E., Ahuja, L.R., Chong, S.K., 1986. Hydraulic conductivity, diffusivity, and sorptivity of unsaturated soils: eld methods. In: Methods of Soil Analysis, Part 1, 2nd ed. Agron. Monogr. 9. Am. Soc. Agron., Madison, WI. Luce, C.H., Cundy, T.W., 1992. Modication of the kinematic wavePhilip inltration overland ow model, Water Resour. Res., 28 (4), 11791186. Mualem, Y., 1976. A new model for predicting the hydraulic conductivity of unsaturated porous media, Water Resour. Res., 12 (3), 513522. Russo, D., Bresler, E., Shani, U., Parker, J.C., 1991. Analyses of inltration events in relation to determining soil hydraulic properties by inverse problem methodology, Water Resour. Res., 27 (6), 13611373. van Genuchten, M.T., 1980. A close-form equation for predicting of the hydraulic conductivity of unsaturated soils, Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J., 44, 892898.

Acknowledgements This research was supported partially by a grant from the US Department of Energy, and a grant from the US Environmental Protection Agency through Great PlainRocky Mountain Hazardous Substance Research Center at Kansas State University. We thank Iggy Litaor for his contributions to discussions of some of the ideas used in this research,