Representing Soil Moisture in Experimental Trench Cover Designs for Waste Burial with the CREAMS Model

Abstract

ABSTRACT

An agriculturally based soil water balance model called CREAMS, using recommended parameter values for application to shallow land burial in semiarid areas, was used to estimate soil water distribution under various soil/rock trench cover designs at several field scales. The ability to accurately model soil water distribution under trench cover designs in semiarid conditions is important for prediction of trench cover failure and water percolation into waste.

CREAMS-predicted soil moisture is compared with in-situ measurements of soil water averaged over the rooting depth; the average coefficient of determination is 0.70 for the given trench cap designs. Ranges of soil properties determined by soil texture class are used in the CREAMS model to bracket observed soil moisture values. The ability to conservatively bracket observed soil moisture above waste under various soil/rock trench cover designs using CREAMS is demonstrated.