Determination of a Pedotransfer Function for Specific Air–Water Interfacial Area in Sandy Soils: A Pore Network-Informed Multigene Genetic Programming Approach

Determination of a Pedotransfer Function for Specific Air–Water Interfacial Area in Sandy Soils: A Pore Network-Informed Multigene Genetic Programming Approach

Rasoul Mirghafari, Ehsan Nikooee, Amir Raoof, Ghassem Habibagahi

Estimating specific air-water interfacial area (SAWIA) is essential for modeling transport and retention of surface-active solutes (such as per and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)) as well as microorganisms in the vadose zone, developing removal techniques for microplastics and predicting mechanical strength of unsaturated soils.

A novel methodology, the pore network-informed multigene genetic programming, is employed to obtain a pedotransfer function for predicting SAWIA in sandy soils, where pore network simulations of soil-water retention data from six sandy soils, with varying porosities and median grain sizes, are used to feed a machine learning algorithm, thereby, developing different formulae predicting SAWIA.

Vadose Zone Journal, Volume 23, Issue 4 (2024)

Corresponding Author: Ehsan Nikooee

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