Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID 2014ND289B

Snowmelt water infiltration into frozen soil in Red River of the North Basin

Institute: North Dakota
Year Established: 2014 Start Date: 2014-03-01 End Date: 2015-02-28
Total Federal Funds: $9,150 Total Non-Federal Funds: $18,300

Principal Investigators: Xinhua Jia

Project Summary: Studies of snowmelt water infiltration into frozen soils are relatively scarce. There is no simple and clear answer on how water infiltrates into frozen soil. Despite the large amount of empirical studies and modeling attempts, the full process of infiltration in frozen soil is not completely understood. Snowmelt water infiltration involves complex processes of heat and mass transfer through the frozen soils. Many factors, such as soil moisture, soil temperature, water release rate from the snow cover, energy content of infiltrating water, porosity, soil cracks, and presence or absence of macropores, affect the total infiltration process.The research project will focus on snowmelt infiltration characteristics into frozen soil. The specific objectives of the research study are to measure infiltration amount/rate into frozen soil at field and laboratory conditions, to develop a snowmelt water infiltration model based on historic, laboratory and field data, and to evaluate model outputs with other available infiltration models.