Available water capacity

Available water capacity or available water content (AWC) is the range of available water that can be stored in soil and be available for growing crops.

The concept, put forward by Frank Veihmeyer and Arthur Hendrickson, assumed that the water readily available to plants is the difference between water content at field capacity (θ_fc) and permanent wilting point (θ_pwp):

θ_a ≡ θ_fc − θ_pwp

Daniel Hillel criticised that the terms FC and PWP were never clearly defined, and lack physical basis, and that soil water is never equally available within this range. He further suggested that a useful concept should concurrently consider the properties of plant, soil and meteorological conditions.

Lorenzo A. Richards remarked that the concept of availability is oversimplified. He viewed that: the term availability involves two notions: (a) the ability of plant root to absorb and use the water with which it is in contact and (b) the readiness or velocity with which the soil water moves in to replace that which has been used by the plant.

See also

• Field capacity
• Permanent wilting point
• Nonlimiting water range
• Integral energy