Calibration and evaluation of water infiltration models in different soil textures

Accurate estimation of water infiltration into the soil is important for the design of irrigation systems. Therefore, calibration of different models is necessary to estimate the permeability in different regions. The aim of the present study was to calibrate and evaluate the models of Kastiakov, Kastiakov modified, Philip, SCS, Novell, and Horton in different soil textures. To evaluate the accuracy of the models, error indicators including RMSE, MAE, MR, PE, and R2 were used. The models were calibrated using an Excel software solver. Evaluation of evaluation indicators showed that the Novell penetration model with average RMSE, MAE, MR, PE, and R2 equal to 0.021, 0.068, 0.999, 0.126, and 0.98, respectively, has better performance than the five models. The other is in the whole range of studies. In contrast, the analysis of the variance of different models showed no significant difference between the calculated and measured values. The performance of the models in different textures showed that Horton, Novell, Kastiakov, and Kastiakov models were less sensitive to changes in soil texture.