Infiltration: Indices and Measurement of

Infiltration (With Diagram)

Infiltration Indices:
Various infiltration indices give rates of infiltration in different
ways to help assessment of the water lost by way of infiltration.
The important among them are the following:
(i) Infiltration Capacity:
It is the maximum rate at which water can enter through the soil
surface at a particular point of time under the given set of
conditions. By now it is clear that actual rate of infiltration will be less
than infiltration capacity unless the net rainfall rate that reaches
the ground after fulfilling retention (i.e., interception + depression
storage) is equal or more than infiltration capacity.
The infiltration capacity goes on reducing as the soil profile
becomes saturated. Like infiltration the infiltration capacity also
depends on soil type, moisture content, organic matter present in
the soil, vegetal cover and season.
Horton gave the following mathematical expression to find out
the value of infiltration capacity at any time:
fp = fc + (fo – fc) e-Kt
Where fp is infiltration capacity.

fo is infiltration rate at the beginning of storm.

fc is constant infiltration rate which is achieved after the soil profile
becomes saturated.
e is base of natural logarithms (Napierian base).

t is time from beginning of rainfall and K is a constant. It may be

remembered that this equation can be applied only when rate of net
rainfall reaching the surface is more than infiltration capacity
throughout the storm rainfall.

(ii) ф Index:
The ф index is that portion of average rate of rainfall during any
storm which gets lost by the processes of interception, depression
storage and infiltration taken together. It can, therefore, be defined
as that rate of average rainfall during any storm beyond which the
volume of remaining rainfall equals the volume of direct surface
runoff. The index can be calculated from a hyetograph (time versus
intensity of rainfall graph) of the storm in such a way that the rainfall
volume in excess of this rate will equal the volume of the storm
runoff Fig. 3.2.
If the rainfall intensity throughout the storm remains equal to or
more than ф index then the ф index represents basin recharge
because ф index represents sum total of infiltration, interception
and depression storage.

(iii) W Index:
This index gives the average rate of infiltration for that time period
of the storm rainfall during which rainfall intensity is greater than W.
Thus it can be said to be refinement over ф index which apart
from infiltration also includes interception and depression storage.
The W index can be obtained from the following equation:
W = P-Q-S/t

Where

W is average rate of infiltration

P is total storm rainfall corresponding to t
Q is total storm run-off.

t is time during which rainfall intensity is more than W and

S is effective surface retention.

W = ф average rate of retention

Where retention includes interception and depression storage.

For all practical purposes ф index can be taken to represent

average rate of infiltration. Since ф and indices assume average
rate of infiltration which in fact is less than initial infiltration rate
and more than ultimate infiltration rate their utility is limited to
major flood producing storms.
Such storms generally occur on wet soil and storms are of such
intensity and duration that the infiltration rate could be very nearly
taken to be constant for whole storm or majority period of storm.
Obviously for short isolated storms ф and W indices are not useful.
Problem:
A drainage basin has a catchment area of 0.5 km2.
A five hour storm has occurred on the basin with the following
rainfall intensities:
 

The volume of direct surface run-off observed as a result of this

storm at the outlet of the basin was 0.232 cumec-day.

Calculate ф index for the basin.

Solution:
Step 1:
Using the data given rainfall hyetograph can be drawn as shown in
Fig. 3.3.

The line XX shows average rate of infiltration and surface

retention together, i.e., ф index.
We have to find out value of ф.

Step 2:
From the given hyetograph total rainfall in 5 hour storm is 60 mm.

Fig. 3.3
Step 3:
Total volume of direct surface runoff = 0.232 x 60 x 60 x 24 =
20,045 m3.
Step 4:
From definition of ф index it is that portion of the average rate of
rainfall above which volume of remaining rainfall equals volume of
run-off.

Volume of water lost = (Total rainfall volume) – (Total run-off

volume) i.e. (infiltration + retention)
= 30,000 – 20,045 = 9955 m3
As a depth of water over the basin = 9955/(0.5×106)= 0.00398 m =
3.98 mm.
ф index = 3.98 mm.

Measurement of Infiltration:
Infiltration can be measured by two methods namely:
1. Indirect Methods:
They involve artificial application of water over a sample area. The
mechanism used for the purpose is called infiltrometer. There are
two types of infiltrometer viz., flooding type and rain simulators.

(a) Flooding type infiltrometer:

It consists of about 25 cm diameter 50 to 65 cm long cylinder. The
cylinder is sunk into the ground to a depth of 40 to 50 cm. The
water is then applied through graduated burettes to maintain a
constant head of water. The readings on burette at fixed interval of
time give the rate and amount of water infiltrated into the soil. To
eliminate the effect of surrounding dry soil on the infiltrometer
sometimes two concentric rings, one of same size and another
bigger diameter say 35 cm are sunk into the ground.

These rings are, however, sunk up to a minimum depth just

necessary to avoid leakage from the rings. The space between both
the rings is filled up to the same level and maintained at constant
level by two different burettes. The burette reading feeding the inner
ring gives rate and amount of infiltration. This method is now
superseded by rain simulator.
(b) Rain simulator:
In this method special sprinklers are mounted on both the sides of a
2 m X 4 m experimental plot. The nozzle of these sprinklers directs
the spray of water in an inclined fashion to cover the plot fully and to
reach a height of about 2 m above the ground. This arrangement
ensures application of water in the form of likely rainfall.

The intensities of simulated rainfall can be changed by closing and

opening the nozzles. The infiltrometer starts working with what is
called a rainfall calibration run. For this run a plastic or a metal
sheet is placed over the plot so that all the water reaching the
ground can be measured without loss of water. This gives the
average rate of rainfall.

After this the test run begins. This run is allowed to continue till the
run-off becomes constant. The difference between simulated rainfall
rate and measured run-off rate gives the value of fc (fc is
constant infiltration rate which has established itself after the soil is
saturated). To eliminate border effect about 0.5 m wide strip all-
round the plot is also sprayed with water separately.
This method suffers from the following drawbacks:
(i) It is difficult to simulate size of rain drops.

(ii) The velocity of fall achieved by the water drops do not represent
correct rainfall conditions.

(iii) The experiment value of infiltration rate tends to be higher than

that achieved under natural conditions.
(iv) The infiltrometer values can be used to compute run-off from a
small watershed only because of the limited area on which
the infiltration rate has been computed.
2. Direct Method:
It consists of analysis of run-off hydrograph resulting from a natural
rainfall over a basin under consideration.

Measurement of Infiltration by hydrograph analysis:

The theoretical analysis of run-off hydrograph has the advantage
that it takes into consideration rainfall pattern, length of overland
flow, slope of basin, soil type, vegetative cover, depression storage,
surface detention as they tend to occur in actual.

However, on a large watershed distribution of rainfall is generally

not known in detail to warrant laborious theoretical methods of
hydrograph analysis. For practical application it is convenient to
separate showers of each storm rainfall into a series of blocks and
consider resulting run-off hydrograph independently by transposing
recession curves or calculating average infiltration rate.
The analysis can be done is the following steps (Refer Fig.
3.4):
 

i. Draw rainfall hyetograph and hydrograph of runoff on the same

plot for the storm in the basin.

ii. Separate each shower of the storm.

iii. Separate each runoff hydrograph from succeeding one by

transposing recession curves.

iv. Deduct base flow from total flow.

v. Obtain storm runoff for each rise.

vi. Select durations of precipitation excess (Te) by inspection of

hyetograph and hydrograph.
vii. Plot mass curves of rainfall and obtain cumulative rainfall values
(Pw1, Pw2, Pw3 etc.).
viii. Plot mass curves of direct storm runoff and obtain cumulative
runoff values (Qs1, Qs2, Qs3 etc.).
ix. Calculate difference of cumulative rainfall and cumulative runoff
(Pw – Qs) which gives total infiltration F.
x. Divide total infiltration by duration of rainfall excess (Te) to get
average infiltrationrate for that shower or block of the storm.
Suitability of Method of Infiltration Measurement:
The various methods of measurement of infiltration direct and
indirect cannot be used on all sizes of watersheds with sufficient
accuracy to assess resulting run-off.
The commonly adopted methods on various sizes of
watersheds are the following:
(i) Small Watersheds:
On small watersheds infiltrometer values and storm hydrograph
analysis method gives satisfactory results.

(ii) Large Watersheds:

In case of large watersheds it is considered convenient to develop
standard infiltration-rate curves by studying number of storms on a
typical representative watershed considering different land uses.
Another method of practical importance in both cases is adoption of
ф index which gives average rate throughout the storm. It is well
suited for estimating peak run-off from a major storm on wet soils.