Evaluation of Furrow Infiltration by Swartzendruber and Horton’s Models in Northern Guinea Savanna of Nigeria

The study aimed at evaluating two models (Swartzendruber and Horton) using furrow infiltration data measured in Samaru, Zaria. These measurements were carried out on the three-field plots A, B and C. Infiltration parameters were generated from the data measured from plots A and B and fitted into the models for predictions of water infiltrated depths at different time intervals. The predictions from the models were compared with the measured field data from plot C. Statistical indices such as coefficient of determination (R2 ), root means square error (RMSE) and T-test at a 5% level of significance were used to determine the best performing model. The results show that the value of R2 and RMSE recorded for Horton’s model was 0.996 and 3.05, while the value of R2 and RMSE recorded for Swartzendruber’s model was 0.998 and 3.01, respectively. The T-test value obtained for Horton’s model was 2.93, while 2.51 was recorded for Swartzendruber’s model. The results of the evaluation indicated that both models were considered suitable because they presented high values of R2 and low values of RMSE as suggested by Aminu (2019). Similarly, the results obtained from the T-test statistics indicated that there is no significant difference between the models evaluated because the calculated values of ‘T’ 2.93 and 2.51 were greater than the tabulated value of 2.365 at a 5% confidence interval. Therefore, this study recommends that both models should be used to predict infiltration rates of soils in the study area.