Polder Effects on Sediment-to-Soil Conversion: Water Table, Residual Available Water Capacity, and Salt Stress Interdependence

Figure 2

Parallel representation of the vertical evolution of the soil structure and hydraulic conductivity. In the 𝑊_𝑠-𝑊_𝑝surface layer the clay dominant soil evolves in its solid state. In the 𝑊_𝑝-𝑊_𝑙 subjacent layer the clay matrix evolves in plastic-to-liquid states. The hydraulic conductivity has been “in situ” measured by infiltrometry in the fractured surface layer (large squares), via oedometer compressibility tests on saturated and consolidated clay material (small squares), and calculated taking into account the clay matrix microstructure parameters (continuous line; [18]). The dashed domain does not exist “in situ” (from Gallier et al. [15]).