Summary
This collaborative review by the International Soil Modelling Consortium's Pedotransfer Functions Working Group identifies critical gaps in four decades of research on pedotransfer functions—empirical relationships between easy-to-measure soil properties and soil hydraulic properties. The authors document how PTF development has concentrated on statistical refinement whilst neglecting fundamental issues: most PTFs represent only agricultural soils in temperate climates, ignore environmental drivers of soil hydraulic properties, and rely on van Genuchten–Mualem functions despite known shortcomings. The paper proposes scaling strategies and a 10-point catalogue to guide future PTF research and application.
UK applicability
UK researchers and practitioners using PTFs for hydrological modelling and soil management should note that existing functions may inadequately represent UK soil diversity (varied parent materials, land uses, and climates) and scale limitations when applied from laboratory to field conditions. The roadmap may guide development of UK-specific or regionally-calibrated PTFs.
Key measures
Analysis of PTF development methods, soil hydraulic property prediction accuracy, scale mismatches between derivation (laboratory) and application (field to regional), and coverage of soil systems by climate, parent material, vegetation, and land use
Outcomes reported
The paper systematises research on hydro-pedotransfer functions (PTFs) and identifies fundamental gaps in their scope, adequacy, and applicability across soil systems and scales. It provides a roadmap for PTF development and use, addressing limitations in current approaches.
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