Factors Affecting Infiltration

Soil Type

The infiltration behavior of soils depends to a great extent on the soil type. In general, coarse-textured gravels and sands have higher infiltration capacities than do fine-textured clays. In New York, such widely varying textures are often found within short distances of each other. Some general steady infiltration rates (i.e., under more-or-less saturated conditions) are (from Hillel, 1980):

More important, however, is how human intervention may affect a soil's infiltration capacity. While infiltration into most gravelly or sandy soils will occur through interparticle pores, fine-textured clays and loams depend on aggregation to maintain high infiltration rates. When these soils are compacted through traffic and/or tillage, especially under wet conditions, soil aggregates are broken down, resulting in dramatically reduced infiltration rates.

Soil compaction from construction activities.

Many clayey soils (depending on their mineralogy) develop shrinkage cracks upon drying. During dry periods in the summer, these soils develop high infiltration capacities although at other times their infiltration is characteristically slow.