5.1 Saturated Flow 1. The movement of gravitational water in response to the pull of gravity. It is the movement of water out of macropores. Applies to groundwater flow and flow through surface soils after heavy precipitation. Darcy's law of water movement describes the average behavior of water in many soil pores of different radii.
Unsaturated flow is the movement of water in response to differences in matric potentials.
Movement is from thick films where water is weakly bound, to thin films where water is strongly bound. 5.3 Vapor equalization 1. The movement of water vapor from regions of high partial pressures of water vapor to regions of low partial pressures of water vapor. Functions over all soil water contents, but becomes the dominant process when in very dry soils where noncontiguous water films make unsaturated flow slow or impossible. Unlike saturated and unsaturated flow, it does not transport solutes.