Modeling root water uptake when calculating unsaturated flow in the vadose zone and groundwater recharge

This paper considers models of the transpiration root water uptake and principles for substantiating their parameters when calculating unsaturated flow in the vadose zone and estimating infiltration groundwater recharge. The possible use of generalized parameters for different landscape and soil conditions is substantiated based on analyzing the natural patterns of water balance formation in the vadose zone and the sensitivity of transpiration models. Recommendations are given for selecting the models of transpiration water uptake and substantiating their parameters, which enables one to minimize the errors in estimating infiltration groundwater recharge.