Flood Holding Capacity: A Novel Concept to Evaluate the Resilience of Amended Soils

Kerr, Heather; Johnson, Karen; Toll, David G.; Mansfield, Florence

Abstract

The term water holding capacity (WHC) has long been used to help researchers determine how soils respond to typical wetting under rainfall. However the term WHC is insufficient as a measurement to describe how soil responds to flooding events. This paper aims present a novel method for WHC testing that also incorporates the volume change, shear strength, erosional resistance and hydraulic conductivity of the soil under saturated conditions. The qualitative combination of these parameters will be used to outline a soil’s ability to withstand flooding, or its ‘flood holding capacity’. Data from recent testing that uses both compost and recycled minerals from the treatment of drinking water to amend soil to improve its ‘flood holding capacity’ (FHC) is presented in this paper to highlight the shortcomings of using WHC alone. At this stage of research the idea of flood holding capacity is only conceptual, however the premise of flood holding capacity is examined using this experimental data.

Citation

Kerr, H., Johnson, K., Toll, D. G., & Mansfield, F. (2016). Flood Holding Capacity: A Novel Concept to Evaluate the Resilience of Amended Soils. . https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784480120.041

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (Published)
• Conference Name: Geo-Chicago 2016
• Start Date: Aug 14, 2016
• End Date: Aug 18, 2016
• Online Publication Date: Aug 11, 2016
• Publication Date: 2016
• Deposit Date: Jun 7, 2017
• Publisher: American Society of Civil Engineers
• Pages: 393-409
• Series Title: Geo-Chicago 2016
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784480120.041
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1147051