[1] In the past two decades significant progress has been made toward the application of inverse modeling to estimate the water retention and hydraulic conductivity functions of the vadose zone at different spatial scales. Many of these contributions have focused on estimating only a few soil hydraulic parameters, without recourse to appropriately capturing and addressing spatial variability. T...

This is an update to the special section “Remote Sensing for Vadose Zone Hydrology—A Synthesis from the Vantage Point” [Vadose Zone Journal 12(3)]. Satellites (e.g., Soil Moisture Active Passive [SMAP] and Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity [SMOS]) using passive microwave techniques, in particular at L-band frequency, have shown good promise for global mapping of near-surface (0–5-cm) soil moistu...

899 The Hanford Site is 1517 km2 (586 mi2) in size, located in a sparsely populated area in the rain shadow of the Cascade Mountains, adjacent to the Columbia River in southeastern Washington State (Fig. 1). The Hanford Site was set aside in the early 1940s by the U.S. Government to perform a top-secret mission, the Manhattan Project, for production of plutonium for atomic weapons used to end W...

[1] Computational capabilities have evolved to a point where it is possible to use multidimensional physically based hydrologic models to study spatial and temporal patterns of water flow in the vadose zone. However, models based on multidimensional governing equations have only received limited attention, in particular because of their computational, distributed input, and parameter estimation...

High concentrations of 2,4-dinitrotoluene (2,4-DNT) and 2,6-dinitrotoluene (2,6-DNT) are present in vadose zone soils at many facilities where explosives manufacturing has taken place. Both DNT isomers can be biodegraded under aerobic conditions, but rates of intrinsic biodegradation observed in vadose zone soils are not appreciable. Studies presented herein demonstrate that nutrient limitation...

Fluid flow in the vadose zone is governed by Richards equation; it is parameterized by hydraulic conductivity, which is a nonlinear function of pressure head. Investigations in the vadose zone typically require characterizing distributed hydraulic properties. Saturation or pressure head data may include direct measurements made from boreholes. Increasingly, proxy measurements from hydrogeophysi...

According to the characteristics of groundwater in arid area, this paper proposes DRAV model for groundwater vulnerability assessment, where D is groundwater depth, R is the net recharge of aquifer, A is the aquifer characteristics, and V is the lithology of vadose zone. As a case study, the paper assesses the vulnerability of pore phreatic water in Tarim Basin of Xinjiang, China by using the D...

Currently there is no in situ method to detect and quantify complete mineralization of chlorinated hydrocarbons (CHCs) to CO2. Combined isotopic measurements in conjunction with traditional chemical techniques were used to assess in situ biodegradation of trichloroethylene (TCE) and carbon tetrachloride (CT). Vadose zone CHC, ethene, ethane, methane, O2, and CO2 concentrations were analyzed usi...

restrict communication to the atmosphere. As a result, gas pressures in the vadose zone will change more slowly Barometric pressure fluctuations may influence measured water and to a lesser extent than barometric pressure. Conlevels in wells where thick vadose zones or low permeability materials versely, gas pressure in an unsealed well will equilibrate overlie unconfined aquifers. Here, we pre...