B.K. Purandara, B. Venkatesh and Veerabasawant Reddy
Abstract
Field experiments were carried out in dry deciduous regions of Uttara Kannada and Dharwar districts under different land covers and soil types to assess the impact of afforestation in degraded parts of the dry deciduous forests.Various hydrological parameters such as rate of infiltration, field saturated hydraulic conductivity and soil moisture retention parameters were determined in the laboratory.These parameters were used for the estimation of unsaturated hydraulic conductivity (through van Genuchten parameters) using a linear regression model. The study demonstrated that there is an improvement in soil hydraulic properties in the afforested areas as compared to barren/degraded lands