Czech University of Life Sciences, Pragueand

PC-Progress, s.r.o., Prague

HYDRUS short course and workshop
Advanced modeling of water flow and contaminanttransport in porous media using the HYDRUS and HP1
software packages
Book of Abstracts
March 24 – 26 2015
Prague, Czech RepublicCzech University of Life Sciences, Prague
Faculty of Agrobiology, Food and Natural ResourcesKamýcká 129
165 21 Praha 6 – Suchdol
Czech Republic
http://www.af.czu.cz/en/
PC-Progress s.r.o.
Korunní 2569/108a
Prague, 101 00
Czech Republic
http://www.pc-progress.com/en/Default.aspx

Preliminary Program
Thursday, March 26
Time
11:00-11:05
11:05-11:10
11:10-11:15
11:15-11:20
11:20-11:25
11:25-11:30
11:30-11:35

Authors and Title
G. van den Eertwegh, R. Bartholomeus, and G. Cirkel : Reuse of treateddomestic wastewater by sub-irrigation of agricultural land: modeling water andsolute transport using SWAP (1D) and Hydrus (2D)
S. Kolev and D. Antonov : Upcoming activities in the frames of the Scientific
Project for in situ studies of the unsaturated flow in Northern Bulgaria
R. Testoni, R. Levizzari, M. De Salve : Radionuclide Transport inEnvironmental Matrices for Safety Assessment
M. Usman and R. Liedl : Modeling nitrogen leaching from irrigatedagricultural areas for sustainable use of groundwater resources
E. Viel, Y. Coquet : Physical non-equilibrium in the unsaturated zone of the
Calcaire Beauce aquifer (FRANCE)
Sevim Seda Yamaç, H. Webber, A. Khamzina : Process-based Modeling of
Biomass Growth in a Multi-species Afforestation System in Central Asia
P. Zieger : Presentation of a Project Idea: Soil Protection Service with
HYDRUS-1D1

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List of Abstracts
1. Reuse of treated domestic wastewater by sub-irrigation of agricultural land: modelingwater and solute transport using SWAP (1D) and HYDRUS (2D) ............................... 4
2. Upcoming activities in the frames of the Scientific Project for in situ studies of theunsaturated flow in Northern Bulgaria .......................................................................... 5
3. Radionuclide Transport in Environmental Matrices for Safety Assessment ................. 6
4. Modeling nitrogen leaching from irrigated agricultural areas for sustainable use ofgroundwater resources ................................................................................................... 7
5. Physical non-equilibrium in the unsaturated zone of the Calcaire Beauce aquifer(France) .......................................................................................................................... 8
6. Process-based Modeling of Biomass Growth in a Multi-species Afforestation System
in Central Asia ............................................................................................................... 9
7. Presentation of a Project Idea: Soil Protection Service with HYDRUS-1D ................ 10

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Reuse of treated domestic wastewater by sub-irrigation ofagricultural land: modeling water and solute transport using
SWAP (1D) and HYDRUS (2D)
G. van den Eertwegh1, R. Bartholomeus2, and G. Cirkel2
1

KnowH2O, Berg en Dal, The Netherlands (eertwegh@knowh2o.nl )KWR Watercycle Research Institute, Nieuwegein, The Netherlands

2

In the Netherlands, the availability of fresh water for agricultural crop production can beunder pressure during dry summer periods. Groundwater is used for irrigation purposes, aswell as water from rivers Rhine and Meuse. Domestic wastewater treatment plants in the
Netherlands produce annually a volume of water equal to a 50 mm layer of fresh water. Thiswater can potentially be used as a source of fresh water in those regions which suffer fromdrought periods. A pilot project has been setup recently in the eastern part of the Netherlands,
in which treated wastewater is applied to a corn field by sub-irrigation during the growing
season of 2015, using a climate adaptive drainage system (CAD). We have been using the
CAD system before as a drainage means, we now expand its functionalities towards subirrigation. The subsurface drains of the system are interconnected and we installed an inlet pit
upstream of the collector drain, for the treated wastewater to enter the drainage system. The
chemical composition of treated domestic wastewater is different from rainfall excess waterand agricultural drainage water. In the pilot project, we are looking at specific chemicals in
the wastewater which we will use as a tracer in describing water and solute transport in thesoil system. At our 5.5 ha test site, we have installed a field monitoring network at threelocations on the vadose zone and the upper 2 m of the local groundwater system. This enables
us to measure vertical solute profiles in the soil water by taking samples, just next to thesubsurface drains (two locations) and midway between two subsurface drains (one location).
We will analyze the flow and transport of the sub-irrigated wastewater and conclude on the
spreading of the water and chemicals involved. We are currently setting up models using
SWAP (1D) and Hydrus (2D) to simulate water and solute transport.

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Upcoming activities in the frames of the Scientific Project for insitu studies of the unsaturated flow in Northern Bulgaria
S. Kolev and D. Antonov
Geological Institute, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, Bulgaria (sava_kolev@geology.bas.bg)

Two experimental sites in Northern Bulgaria will be selected and equipped in the frames ofthe ongoing Project (2015-2016) financed by the Bulgarian Fund for Scientific Research
entitled “Application of up-to-date methods and technologies for evaluation of thegroundwater recharge related to future climate change in Bulgaria, with emphasis on
the vadose zone”. The experimental sites will be located in Northern Bulgaria near to the
Danube River where the thick loess cover is widespread.
The research objectives of the Project are: a complex study of the unsaturated zone including
in situ measurements of the soil water pressure head (by tensiometers) and the soil moisture(by TDRs). These devices together with a weather station will be connected to a data logger
system to collect and transmit the data in real time to selected computer networks via Wi-Fi
transfer. Further subsequent modeling of the unsaturated flow by HYDRUS-1D, RETC,HYDRUS (2D-3D) will be performed.
In order to introduce state of the art technologies and methods as well as high quality research
activities within the Project, the Bulgarian team (with Project supervisor Assoc. Prof. T.
Orehova) invited leading scientists from Mie University (Japan) and University of California
Riverside, UCR (USA). From Mie University (Hydrology and Soil Physics Laboratory)
participants are Prof. N. Toride, Assoc. Prof. K. Watanabe and Assist. Prof. M. Sakai, andfrom UCR (Environmental Sciences Department) – Prof. Jiri Šimůnek.
As a result of the Project activities, unique data base (daily, two-year long time-series) are to
be gathered for the two experimental sites. The data obtained will be processed by software tosimulate the flow in the vadose zone and to calculate the elements of the water balance
including the groundwater recharge. At a second stage, the gathered data as well as theupcoming in situ measurements will be available for on-line monitoring and analyses.
The significance of the research is related to more frequent droughts anticipated in Southeast
Europe that would result in reduced annual groundwater recharge. The complex study of thevadose zone would be useful for different issues related to agriculture (including soil physics,
agrometeorology, agricultural ecology and agricultural practice), migration analyses fordifferent environmental problems, hydrology (flood risk), local and regional hydrogeology.
An important issue of the Project will be the combination of modern methods andtechnologies (Wi-Fi transfer and on-line monitoring in specified Internet site) and thehydrological and soil physics research for the needs of the environmental predictions andevaluations.

5Radionuclide Transport in Environmental Matrices for Safety
Assessment
R. Testoni1, R. Levizzari2, M. De Salve1
1

Department of Energy, Politecnico di Torino, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi, 24 - 10129 Torino, Italy
raffaella.testoni@polito.it
2
Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development, Saluggia
Research Centre, Strada per Crescentino 41 - 13040 Saluggia (VC), Italy

In the nuclear field, Safety Assessment is the engineering tool to evaluate the risk due tonuclear activities. It involves the studies of safety from the siting to the post-closure phase of
nuclear facilities. An activity included in the Safety Assessment is the study of theradionuclide transport in environmental matrices (e.g. groundwater, surface water, soil, etc.),
in accidental situations. One of the main pathways is through groundwater, which must be
safeguarded to protect the population and the environment from the radiological risk. In thiswork, an Italian nuclear site in North Italy has been investigated. First, the vadose zone has
been studied from the hydraulic and radionuclide transport point of view. Prediction
scenarios have been developed and the main factors which may influence the radionuclidetransport in the soil depth by means of Hydrus-1D software have been identified. Secondly,
the groundwater dynamic has been analyzed identifying critical conditions which may
influence changes in the groundwater behavior. These critical conditions are related to theparticular hydrogeological framework of the investigated area. Also in this work, theradionuclide transport has been investigated analyzing different contamination situations bymeans of MODFLOW and MT3DMS software. Finally, the coupling of vadose zone modeland saturated zone model is under investigation, from both hydraulic and radionuclidetransport point of view. A methodological approach has been proposed and some preliminary
results on the Italian nuclear site have been obtained. This work can be included in Safety
Assessment in order to increase the knowledge on the radionuclide transport under different
boundary conditions. It can be useful to improve the design of environmental monitoring
network or/and the planning of possible mitigation actions, in order to protect the populationand the environment from radiological risks.

6Modeling nitrogen leaching from irrigated agricultural areas
for sustainable use of groundwater resources
M. Usman and R. Liedl
Institute for Groundwater Management, 01069 TU Dresden, Germany musman@uaf.edu.pk

In semi arid irrigated regions, recharge from field percolation is an integral part ofgroundwater modeling. The percolated water from field crops can bring a lot of nitrogen to
groundwater if fertilizers are used excessively for these crops. Unfortunately, this ishappening already in many parts of Pakistan, where farmers are applying more nitrogen
fertilizers to crops in order to increase crop yields. But they are totally unaware of its
aftershocks in form of polluted groundwater resources. According to some reports,
groundwater quality in many parts of country has been deteriorated a lot in last decade.
People are facing shortage of quality drinking water and therefore, are facing severs healthissues. Even though the problem has extended dramatically but sill there is no serious effort
from any quarter to sort out this problem scientifically. This is possible by quantifying theamount of nitrogen to groundwater from some specific main sources like rice, maize andwheat crops. The objective of this study is to carefully evaluate the use of nitrogen fertilizers
and then to devise some guidelines about its use for these major crops without hampering
their yields. The other part is to investigate the impact of this point source nitrogen pollution
on overall groundwater quality in larger areas. This will be performed by coupling input
loads of nitrogen leaching from unsaturated/ saturated models (e.g. Hydrus) to groundwatermodels (Modflow or FEFLOW etc).

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Physical non-equilibrium in the unsaturated zone of the
Calcaire Beauce aquifer (France)
E. Viel, Y. Coquet
Institut des Sciences de la Terre d’Orléans (ISTO –UMR 7327), Université d’Orléans, France
emelie.viel@cnrs-orleans.fr

Since a few decades, the Calcaire de Beauce aquifer presents a nitrate contamination. The
nitrate dynamics in the aquifer is understood, but its transport through the vadose zone
remains largely unknown. To study transfer processes in the vadose zone of the Calcaire deBeauce aquifer, some undisturbed cores of different sizes have been taken below the deepest
soil horizon.
At the field scale, the vadose zone is composed of powdery limestone with a grain size
distribution of 6% clay, 29% fine silt, 16% coarse silt, 14% fine sand, 35% coarse sand, andless than 1% OM, and is spatially very heterogeneous, including a lot of coarse elements. At
the core scale, column 6 is made of very fine homogeneous limestone whereas columns Test
and 8 are very heterogeneous with a large proportion of coarse elements.
An elution experiment was performed on all columns. A tracer (Br- or DFBA) in a solutionof 0.02M CaCl2 was spread as a pulse on the top of the column with a rainfall simulator.
Input flow rate was kept constant. Tracer was collected as a function of time. The collected
fractions were analyzed by HPLC (High-performance liquid chromatography) with a UV
detector.
STANMOD was used for each breakthrough curve to estimate transport parameters. For the
CDE (Convection-Dispersion Equation), the estimated transport parameters were the porewater velocity, v, and the coefficient of hydrodynamic dispersion, D. For the MIM (MobileImmobile Model), the estimated transport parameters were the partitioning coefficient𝜃𝑚𝛼𝐿β � 𝜃 �, and the dimensionless mass transfer coefficient ω �𝜃𝑣�.

The standard CDE was suitable for columns 6 and Test, but the MIM had to be used todescribe properly the BTC (Breakthrough curve) of column 8. This difference of behavior
could be explained by the difference of the structure of the limestone material. The immobile
water fraction was found to be higher for columns made of heterogeneous limestone. For all
experiments, the rainfall rate was similar (about 4 mm/h), this intensity did not permit toactivate the macroporosity in the cases of columns 6 and Test.
In future work HYDRUS-1D will be used to see the change in shape of the BTC for eachcolumn according to variations of rainfall intensity. A panel of rainfall intensities will be
explored to look for the threshold over which immobile water appears.

8Process-based Modeling of Biomass Growth in a Multi-species
Afforestation System in Central Asia
Sevim Seda Yamaç1, Heidi Webber2, Asia Khamzina1
1

University of Bonn - Center for Development Research (ZEF), Walter Flex Str. 3, 53113 Bonn, Germany,
sevimseda10@gmail.com
2
University of Bonn, Institute of Crop Science and Resource Conservation (INRES), Crop Science Group,
Katzenburgweg 5, 53115 Bonn, Germany

Degradation of irrigated croplands, due to soil salinization and nutrient depletion, is a major
environmental issue in Central Asia, one of the largest irrigated areas in the world. Field trials
on degraded croplands in the lower Amudarya Basin showed that afforestation with welladapted tree species, such as Elaeagnus angustifolia L., Ulmus pumila L., and Populus
euphratica Oliv. was a viable option to improve soil fertility, contribute to irrigation watersaving and provide valuable products to the local farmers. Our study builds on the sitespecific results of the afforestation experiments for simulation analyses of tree biomass
growth with the Agricultural Production Systems Simulator (APSIM), a process-based 1-D
model. We present results of the model parameterization for reproducing the observed
dynamics of foliage, stem- and coarse root biomass in stands of U. pumila and N2-fixing
E. angustifolia over growing period of 8-9 years. The statistical assessment showed anadequate performance of the model given RMSEs of 3 and 6%. The model efficiency
coefficient was always positive indicating the modeling accuracy. The coefficient ofdetermination ranged between 0.79 and 0.98.
We are interested in exploring the capabilities of HYDRUS-1S for simulation of soil waterand solute changes following the conversion of saline cropland to tree plantations.

9Presentation of a Project Idea: Soil Protection Service with
HYDRUS-1D
P. Zieger
Fraunhofer FKIE petra.zieger@fkie.fraunhofer.deFraunhofer FKIE plans to develop a trafficability service for agricultural purpose to protect
soil from compaction. In a first approach a prototype working with worldwide input data wasdeveloped with the view to show the operability of coupling ArcGIS with HYDRUS-1D.
Python is used as programming language. A preprocessing algorithm is implemented in a firststep and trafficability algorithm will be added in the next step. HYDRUS-1D is part of the
preprocessing model, started from ArcGIS Desktop calculating soil moisture, snow height
and frost line for an area of about 100.000 km².
As part of the preprocessing algorithm static and dynamic input data is fused. HWSD soil
data base is used as digital soil map with worldwide cover. Dynamic weather forecasting data
for the following three days comes in a first approach from German Weather Service DWD(Global Weather Model GME). Between midnight and daybreak input data can be fused andsoil moisture can be calculated for an area about 100.000 km² with a pixel resolution of 100
m. HYDRUS-1D is called from python script for each cluster and calculates soil moisture,snow height and frost line. First results show the operability of coupling ArcGIS andHYDRUS-1D to receive soil moisture. In the next step soil, landuse and weather input datawith a higher resolution will be integrated.
In the final run soil trafficability will be calculated as function of soil texture, soil moistureand soil stability for a point of time in the next three days. A model from Switzerland isfavored to be used to calculate the risk of soil compaction. The farmer will have to enter thebounding box of the area, a point of time in the next three days and the properties of the
agricultural machine. The final trafficability algorithm will be published as ArcGIS
Geoprocessing Service waiting for input data from farmers terminal device. As a result thefarmer will receive a so called Go/NoGo map with NoGo areas in red and Go areas in green
color.

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