Water repellency in soils: a historical overview

The purpose of this paper is to document some of the more important highlights of the research and historical aspects concerning soil water-repellency. This effort traces the evolution of interests and concerns in water repellency from basic studies in the nineteenth century to the earlier part of the 20th century and up to our current-day understanding of this subject. The interactions among different scientific disciplines, various manager-scientists efforts, and specific scientific and management concerns are presented chronologically. This growing interest in water repellency generated an earlier conference in 1968 which was devoted exclusively to water repellency and has since initiated productive discussions and debate on water repellency during several peripherally related national and international conferences. The 1968 conference held in Riverside, California (USA), mainly involved scientists from the United Stares and Australia. Since this early conference, a large body of information has been published in a wide range of scientific disciplines throughout the world. This worldwide attention has produced many recent research findings, which have improved the understanding of water-repellent soils, particularly of the dynamics of the water movement and redistribution in these unique systems. Intermingled with the effort in water repellency is a related, although somewhat separate, body of information dealing with soil aggregation and water harvesting, which are important for improving the productivity of fragile arid ecosystems. A summary is presented of the literature on water repellency, showing changes in subject areas and national interests over time. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.