Soil response model verification: A multi-year study of foot traffic impact

The purpose of this research is to build upon the baseline study of soil compaction response to trampling previously conducted. Although trampling studies have been conducted in the past, the analysis of military training, in part, provides a different perspective and approach. The baseline data showed bulk densities remained relatively constant for a time and then began to increase at an increasing rate for several hundred passes and finally leveled and remained at or below 1.30 gm/cm3 through the remainder of the experiment. A mathematical model was created based on empirical data from the trampling experiment using a gamma cumulative distribution function. Subsequent similar experiments were conducted over the following 2 years to verify the baseline model soil response. The follow-on data were modeled using the same gamma distribution function with good results. The model replicated the soil response for the subsequent years well with the exception of the initial threshold which was dramatically reduced for both years. The experiments and the resulting model give quantifiable continuous inference on the effects of trampling, as opposed to the existing qualitative assessments. This model performed well and can be used as a foundation for future studies of land management when trampling occurs.