• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.741-749
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• 1999

This study is to develop a method of measuring the soil water concentration by using TDR, which is based on the relationships between the bulk soil electrical conductivity of soil and the reflected wave of TDR. The proposed monitoring method is combined with two important relationships. One is that between the bulk soil electrical conductivity and the solute concentration, which is known to be linear at a constant volumetric soil water content and the other is that between the relative bulk soil electrical conductivity and the water content at a constant concentration. Some formulas have been proposed to solve the second relationship, but a new formula and the critical water content are proposed to improve the accuracy of measurement. This proposed formula estimates the relative bulk soil electrical conductivity for water contents which is divided to two regions, linear and nonlinear, by the critical water content. As the result of the comparison with other formulas, the proposed formula is proved to be superior to other formulas and to be an available method to apply to the unsaturated transient solute transport.