Conteúdo Volumétrico da água no Solo Via Modelos de Competição Interespecífica

The present work aimed to create a tool that can contribute to the prediction of moisture content in heterogeneous and well-drained plots of soil over a given period of time. To characterise the water balance, which is a criterion for the redistribution of water in the soil, an analogy is made to the competition model in population dynamics. This analogy can be explained by “competition” for water among the different soil compartments. The different layers “compete” with each other for water due to difference in hydraulic potential. In this sense, the model proposed is based on models of interspecific competition. Furthermore, the numerical methodology proposed is characterized to be solved more easily than the traditional and highly non-linear Richards’ equation. Numerical results were compared against simulation results from the Hydrus-1D program.