The importance of permeability in modelling soil-atmosphere interaction

Soil-atmosphere interaction has been attracting increasing interest as the seasonal variation of pore water pressures (pwp) linked to a variety geotechnical problems (e.g. slope stability and serviceability, foundation subsidence or swelling, desiccation cracking etc.) identified part solution in sustainable urban drainage systems). Prediction how pwp will change within soils low permeability under combined effect evapotranspiration precipitation requires adequate knowledge soil it varies spatially (e.g with depth) temporally suction degree saturation, void ratio due opening closing cracks). Nonetheless, in-situ measurements that satisfy both spatial temporal are difficult. In order clarify importance variable predicting variations atmospheric loads, series one- two-dimensional finite element analyses was performed, where model were parametrically studied. The results demonstrated permeability, well employed analysis, e.g. allowing not for cracking, influenced values calculated profile depth, highlighting estimating some level confidence.