Assessment of different pedotransfer models using soil texture for predicting saturated water content, Al-Ahsa, Saudi Arabia.

Abstract

            This study assessed the accuracy of 22 published pedotransfer functions (PTFs) for estimating soil saturation. θ_s was evaluated using local soil samples (n=10) in the Al-Ahsa region. The results showed only the PTF model developed by Al-Saeedi (2022) met the applied evaluation performance criteria (R²=0.872, RMSE=0.024, NSE=0.705, and RSR=0.506). The other 21 equations did not meet the required model reliability and validation criteria. This study also produced a crucial result: the demand for additional statistical criteria rather than correlation and error measurements in evaluating and validating the suitable model.