Hydrologic characteristics of soils in parts of Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Texas

Certain physical characteristics of soils, including permeability, available water capacity, thickness, and topographic position, have a definite effect on the hydrology of an area. They control the rate at which precipitation infiltrates or is transmitted through the soil, and thus they have a significant role in determining the rates both of ground-water recharge and surface runoff. In studies of ground-water hydrology, it commonly is useful to differentiate soils areally according to their physical characteristics and to assign values indicating the hydrologic responses of soils in the different areas.

In 1980 the U.S. Geologic Surey began a study termed the “Central Midwest Region Aquifer System Analysis,” Jorgensen and Signor, 1981). The regional aquifer system is defined as including all aquifers of Cretaceous age or older in all or parts of nine States included in this report. For part of this analysis, use of a soil-moisture model is planned to obtain estimates of actual evapotranspiraion and recharge to the regional aquifer system. Data for the hydrologic characteristics of the soils in the study area are required as input to this soil-moisture model.