A Critical Review of Single Ring Cylinder Infiltrometers with Lateral Flow Compensation

Predicting infiltration rates is among the most important aspects in planning, designing, and managing groundwater recharge systems, flood water retention basins and other infiltration systems. Knowledge of soil infiltration rates determines the capacity of the soil to receive water and ultimately how much land surface will be required to meet the infiltration demand of the engineered system. The saturated hydraulic conductivity (K) of the wetted zone is theoretically equal to the final large scale steady-state infiltration rate assuming uniform soil properties and the absence of influencing factors such as soil clogging, biological activity, and entrapped air (Bouwer, 1966).