Effect of soil hydraulic properties on water infiltration of containerised soil

•Ratio of soil saturated permeability inside and outside the container is proposed.•Soil saturated permeability outside the container affected the drainage ability.•Higher saturated permeability outside the container is more favourable.

The development of infrastructure in an urban city, such as road widening and building work, will inevitably result in the removal of trees. Therefore, innovative solutions such as containerised tree in the manner of increasing the portability of trees would be necessary to facilitate efficient transplanting in order to maintain a sustainable green urban environment. Differences in soil hydraulic properties between soil mixture and in situ soil naturally occur in tree planting, but this difference becomes more important in the use of container due to the limited tree root movement. The objective of this research was to examine the effects of soil hydraulic properties between the soils inside and outside of the container with focus being placed on moisture infiltration both in and out of the container. Field instrumentation and laboratory tests were carried out together with parametric study using numerical model. The results suggested that the higher the ratio between the saturated permeability of the soils inside and outside the container, the lower was the ability of water to flow in and out of the container.