HYdraulic PRoperties of European Soils

HYPRES Database:

The EU have funded a project in which a number of European Institutions are collaborating to develop the HYPRES database (HYdraulic PRoperties of European Soils). The distribution of the participating institutions is shown in the accompanying map. The project is co-ordinated by Dr Henk Wösten of the Winand Staring Centre, Wageningen and the project researcher is Dr Allan Lilly of the Macaulay Land Use Research Institute, Aberdeen. The project began in January 1995 and will end in December 1997. During the first two years a database of soil hydraulic properties and relevant soil attributes was compiled (see database structure). This database (HYPRES) has geo-reference and horizon has the unique identifiers of approximately 4900 soil horizons.
 
 

Application and Methods:

The primary use of the data within the current project is to derive class pedotransfer functions for topsoils and subsoils based on the five soil texture classes (plus organic soils) currently used to describe the soil units depicted on the 1: 1 000 000 Soil Map of Europe. Initially, the measured soil hydraulic data from each individual soil horizon will be parameterised using the Mualem-van Genuchten equations and grouped according to soil texture class. These equations will then be used to derive mean hydraulic properties for each texture class along with standard deviations (see hydraulic properties). The overall result will be a map showing the soil physical composition of Europe and a set of non-scale-specific pedotransfer functions.
 
 

Beyond the lifetime of the project the database will comprise the basic dataset of the European Soil Bureau 'Soil Hydraulic Parameters' working group. The co-workers within this group envisage much wider applications for this dataset within both applied and strategic research.