Prediction of the water balance of two soil cover systems

Soil cover systems are widely used for containment of municipal solid waste, hazardous and mine waste, with the objective of limiting the ingress of precipitation and oxygen. The ability to predict their long-term performance is crucial, as their failure would result in the release of contaminants to the environment. However, monitoring covers over the long term to derive the information needed to aid in design is impractical and there are no large-scale covers that have been in use for a long enough period to generate the data needed. Numerical models have been particularly useful as design tools. To improve their reliability these models may be calibrated to field data and then used to make long-term predictions of cover performance. The field performance of two resistive test soil covers on a 20% sloping waste rock platform is predicted using the two-dimensional soil–atmosphere model Vadose/W. Input data for the model included soil, climate and vegetation data obtained either in the field or laboratory. Model results were compared to field data to assess the validity of the program. The model reasonably simulated field response patterns for soil water storage and suction. Divergence between field performance data and model predictions were significantly influenced by snowmelt, interflow and flow through preferential pathways.