Comparison of the soil physical properties and hydrological processes in two different forest type catchments

Abstract

Soil physical properties and hydrological processes were analyzed in two experimental catchments with different forest types: one catchment is covered mostly with conifer type trees and the other catchment is covered with conifer and broad leaf trees. To analyze the effects of forest type on soil physical properties, we applied an hourly time step lumped conceptual model, which includes a physically-based infiltration submodel and an evapotranspiration sub-model, to simulate long term discharge. The estimated model parameters and some measured soil characteristics were compared for the two catchments to reveal the differences in soil physical properties. The differences in hydrological processes were compared through observed hydrological factors (rainfall, discharge and meteorological data) between the two catchments.