# Soil Database SOILS.DAT

• defines soil material

In this file, all information about different natural soils and seal materials are stored. Each material has its own two-letter ID which is then used in the PROFILS.DAT database to define different vertical soil profiles.

The standard version of this file looks like that:

00: ID  V     ns    nfc  nwilt matpot    hydr    CP       b    Hcn Name......(40z)....
00: ss  b xxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxx x[10-6] [10+6] xxxxxx xxxxxx ssssssssssssssssssss
01: 00  0  0.451  0.240  0.155 -0.478    7.0   1.212   5.39   0.00 Default Soil (Loam)
02: sd  0  0.395  0.135 0.0068 -0.121  176.0   1.463   4.05   0.00 Sand
03: ls  0  0.410  0.150  0.075 -0.090  156.3   1.404   4.38   0.00 Loamy Sand
04: sl  0  0.435  0.195  0.114 -0.218   34.1   1.320   4.90   0.00 Sandy Loam
05: sl  0  0.485  0.255  0.179 -0.786    7.2   1.271   5.30   0.00 Silt Loam
06: le  0  0.451  0.240  0.155 -0.478    7.0   1.212   5.39   0.00 Loam
07: ts  0  0.420  0.255  0.175 -0.299    6.3   1.175   7.12   0.00 Sandy Clay Loam
08: tl  0  0.477  0.322  0.218 -0.356    1.7   1.317   7.75   0.00 Silty Clay Loam
09: lt  0  0.476  0.325  0.250 -0.630    2.5   1.225   8.52   0.00 Clay Loam
10: st  0  0.426  0.310  0.219 -0.153    2.2   1.175  10.40   0.00 Sandy Clay
11: ts  0  0.492  0.370  0.283 -0.490    1.0   1.150  10.40   0.00 Silty Clay
12: to  0  0.482  0.367  0.286 -0.405    1.3   1.089  11.40   0.00 Clay
13: tf  0  0.863  0.500  0.395 -0.356    8.0   0.836   7.75   0.00 Peat
14: zb  1   0.00  0.000  0.000   0.00    0.0   2.083   0.00   1.63 Cement Concrete
15: mb  1   0.00  0.000  0.000   0.00    0.0   1.750   0.00   2.33 Mineral Concrete
16: ak  1   0.00  0.000  0.000   0.00    0.0   2.214   0.00   1.16 Asphalt (with Gravel)
17: ab  1   0.00  0.000  0.000   0.00    0.0   2.251   0.00   0.90 Asphalt (with Basalt)
18: gr  1   0.00  0.000  0.000   0.00    0.0   2.345   0.00   4.61 Granite
19: ba  1   0.00  0.000  0.000   0.00    0.0   2.386   0.00   1.73 Basalt
20: ww  2   0.00  0.000  0.000   0.000   0.0   0.000   0.000  0.00 Water

## What do the lines and columns mean?

The first two lines are not interpreted by ENVI-met, but must remain in the file as they are headers and needed to check if the format of the file is correct.

The meaning of the columns is:

ID:        The two-digit ID which links the Soils with the Profile Data in PROFILES.DAT
V:         Kind of Soil; 0: Normal Soil, 1: Sealing Material (no water exchange), 2: Deep Water
ns:        Volumetric Water Content at Saturation in [m3m-3]
nfc:       Volumetric Water Content at Field Capacity in [m3m-3]
nwilt:     Volumetric Water Content at Wilting Point (for the vegetation model) in [m3m-3]
matpot     Matrix Potential at Saturation in [m]
hydr:      Hydraulic Conductivity at Saturation in [ms-1]* 10-6 (!)
CP:        Volumetric Heat Capacity in [Jm-3K-1]* 106 (!)
b:         Clapp & Hornberger Constant
HCN:       Heat Conductivity of the Material in [Wm-1K-1]
Name:      A given Name for Identification

The first 13 (01-13) entries are “real” soils and the parameter listed are taken from hydraulic scheme by Clapp & Hornberger (78), CH hereafter.
Real soils do not have information about their heat conductivity, as it is calculated with respect to the actual water content.
This list is normally complete, as it covers all soils types defined by CH. Nevertheless, studies exists for special soils, so you might want to add something to this list.

Please note that these database do not contain information about soil wetness, it only contains texture data!

Entries (14) to (19) define a selection of different sealing materials. As those “soils” do not allow water transfer, they don't have values for the CH scheme. Different to the normal soils, the heat conductivity must be given here.

Line number (20) defines the special soil “water” and is more or less a dummy which is needed because the input routines makes no differences between water and other soils when setting up the model grid.
The only information needed is the ID and the number “2” for a water body.

Important to know:

• You must strictly follow the column format as pre-defined in this file. The first line shows, where the entry fields begin and where they end. If you scramble this format, ENVI-met cannot resolve the entries. This file is not as user friendly as the .CF file!
• ENVI-met doesn't check the data entered in this file as it expects that this file is only modified by specialists. If you are not sure that you are one of them, leave this file alone.