Performance evaluation of commonly used infiltration models

Soil infiltration rate is a critical parameter in the design and evaluation of stormwater control facilities. The aim of this research was to evaluate selected infiltration models (Horton’s, Kostiakov’s, and Green-Ampt’s) used to estimate final soil infiltration rate. Parameters of the models were estimated. The goodness of fit of the three equations for infiltration was tested using the root mean squared error (RMSE). Comparison of the field and predicted infiltration rate evaluated at each time interval indicated that the infiltration rate predicted by the Green-Ampt’s and Horton’s models were much closer to the measured data.