Comparative performance of different infiltration models for prediction of infiltration rate under different land-use conditions

The design and assessment of sustainable irrigation systems heavily rely on infiltration models. This study aims to assess the performance of different infiltration models for estimating the infiltration rate of the soil under different soil and land use conditions. The experiment was conducted in the field for measuring the infiltration rate using double-ring infiltrometer instrument. Using data from field infiltration tests, some well-known infiltration models, like Horton's, Philip's, Kostiakov's, and Green-Ampt, were developed. The performance of the developed models was evaluated using the R-2 value. The constant infiltration rate of the forest, hard surface, cultivated and barren land was found to be 6 cm/h, 1.36 cm/h, 2.4 cm/h and 1.153 cm/h, respectively. Here, it was discovered that Horton's model outperforms other models for predicting infiltration rate for the forest, hard surface, and cultivated land with the R-2 values of 0.9884, 0.935, and 0.98, respectively. Kostiakov's model outperformed all other models in barren land for the prediction of infiltration rate with the R-2 value of 0.9706. Green-Ampt's model performed worse than all other models under different soil and land-use conditions for the prediction of infiltration rate. The developed models will be useful for designing irrigation systems and modeling hydrological processes in the study area.