Evaluation of parameterisation approaches for estimating soil hydraulic parameters with HYDRUS-1D in the groundnut basin of Senegal

Soil hydraulic parameters (SHPs) required as inputs for numerical models are scarce in Sahelian regions. Instead, they estimated using pedotransfer functions (PTFs), but their ability to simulate soil water dynamics has not been evaluated. This study aims parameterize SHPs with seven different PTFs and inverse modelling examine fluxes Senegal’s Groundnut basin. We used four years of field measurements content (SWC) actual evapotranspiration (ETa) under pearl millet groundnut crop rotation model evaluation. Inverse SWC (root mean square error [RMSE] ≤ 0.015 cm3 cm−3) ETa (RMSE 0.62 mm d−1) yielded the best performance compared (0.024–0.175 cm−3 0.68–0.96 d−1, respectively). Where lacking estimation, three tested good results could be a parsimonious approach cultivated soils.