This book summarises the main results of many contributions from researchers worldwide who have used the water infiltration process to characterize soil in the field. Determining soil hydrodynamic properties is essential to interpret and simulate the hydrological processes of economic and environmental interest. This book can be used as a guide to soil hydraulic characterization and in addition it gives a complete description of the treated techniques, including an outline of the most significant research results, with the main points that still needing development and improvement.

In 1995 the Handbook of Global Optimization (first volume), edited by R. Horst, and P.M. Pardalos, was published. This second volume of the Handbook of Global Optimization is comprised of chapters dealing with modern approaches to global optimization, including different types of heuristics. Topics covered in the handbook include various metaheuristics, such as simulated annealing, genetic algorithms, neural networks, taboo search, shake-and-bake methods, and deformation methods. In addition, the book contains chapters on new exact stochastic and deterministic approaches to continuous and mixed-integer global optimization, such as stochastic adaptive search, two-phase methods, branch-and-bound methods with new relaxation and branching strategies, algorithms based on local optimization, and dynamical search. Finally, the book contains chapters on experimental analysis of algorithms and software, test problems, and applications.

Applications of Soil Physics deals with the applications of soil physics and covers topics ranging from infiltration and surface runoff to groundwater drainage, evaporation from bare-surface soils, and uptake of soil moisture by plants. Water balance and energy balance in the field are also discussed, along with tillage and soil structure management. The development and extension of Penman's evaporation formula is also described. This book is comprised of 14 chapters and begins with a systematic description of the field-water cycle and its management, with emphasis on infiltration and runoff; redistribution and drainage; evaporation and transpiration; and irrigation and tillage. Subsequent chapters focus on transpiration from plant canopies; freezing phenomena in soils; scaling and similitude of soil-water phenomena; spatial variability of soil physical properties; and movement of solutes during infiltration into homogeneous soil. Concepts of soil-water availability to plants are considered, together with principles of irrigation management and the advantages and limitations of drip irrigation. This monograph is intended for upper-level undergraduate and graduate students of the environmental, engineering, and agronomic sciences.

Soil hydrology determines the water–soil–plant interactions in the Earth’s system because porous medium acts as an interface within the atmosphere and lithosphere; regulates main processes such as runoff discharge, aquifer recharge, movement of water, and solutes into the soil; and ultimately the amount of water retained and available for plants growth. Soil hydrology can be strongly affected by land management. Therefore, investigations aimed at assessing the impact of land management changes on soil hydrology are necessary, especially to optimize water resources. This Special Issue collects 12 original contributions addressing the state-of-the-art advances in soil hydrology for sustainable land management. These contributions cover a wide range of topics including (i) the effects of land use change, (ii) water use efficiency, (iii) erosion risk, (iv) solute transport, and (v) new methods and devices for improved characterization of soil physical and hydraulic properties. They include both field and laboratory experiments as well as modelling studies. Different spatial scales, i.e., from field to regional scales, and a wide range of geographic regions are also covered. The collection of these manuscripts presented in this Special Issue provides a relevant knowledge contribution for effective saving water resources and sustainable land management.