Determining the effective Eucalyptus leaves heating temperature that triggers water repellency using medium sand and soil from Kisima area of Samburu, Kenya

Abstract

Land is becoming a challenge and maximization on use is very important. Improvement of runoff for effective and efficient water harvesting is very important. To improve on water harvesting, application of water repellency has been analyzed to see how it can reduce or maximize a catchment in supply of runoff for water harvesting which is consequently expected to help improve use of land especially in arid lands. A series of experiment using heated Eucalyptus leaves under various temperature ranging from 170°C to 300°C was done using a furnace. The optimum temperature of 250°C with heating time of 50 minutes and 300°C with heating time of 30 minutes gave better results on positive effect in the runoff as analyzed in laboratory. Comparing these two optimum experimental settings, the infiltration rate for 250°C case was lower than that for 300°C. The results showed soil water repellency can be used in the improvement of water harvested by limiting infiltration in areas where water is less needed.