Salt Crust
Salt crust over evaporating soils is a well-known feature that has a great deal of importance in respect to ecological and agricultural concerns. We try to shed new light on the physical processes that control and affect the nature of salt accumulation in porous media in general and soils in particular.
Rain Water Harvesting
In urban environments, a large proportion of the rain is being diverted to the municipal drainage system. This increases the risk for floods and results in the loss of good quality water. To overcome both of these problems, we explore different methods to harvest rain from roofs and to pump it directly into the aquifer.
Soil Compaction
Soil compaction is a serious problem in agricultural environments due to the transport of heavy machinery on the fields. The compacted soil is more susceptible for erosion and distribution of water and nutrients at the compacted root zone is very limited. By using state of the art high-resolution micro-CT we try to better understand what are the physical processes that are taking action within the compacted soils and how it affect the hydraulic properties of the soil.
PAM
Polyacrylamide is a polymer that is being used to stabilize soils. However, applying it requires to dilute it in high volumes of water. In arid environments, where water is scarce, the use of Polyacrylamide was not possible up to now. In this project, we test a unique sprayer that sprays the polymer over the soil and allow us, for the first time, to stabilize soils in dry environments by using the Polyacrylamide.
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Roots and Salinity
Roots affect solute transport and distribution in the soil and vice-versa. In this research we try to better understand salt dynamics at the root zone and looking for agricultural practices to improve water use efficiency, under conditions of saline water irrigation. This research involves unique subsurface measuring techniques, in order to observe and to correlate solute distribution and root growth at the sub-surface.
Salt Crust
Salt crust over evaporating soils is a well-known feature that has a great deal of importance in respect to ecological and agricultural concerns. We try to shed new light on the physical processes that control and affect the nature of salt accumulation in porous media in general and soils in particular.