Home – Home – Jornals – Contemporary Problems of Ecology 2010 number 3

A number of methodological aspects concerning the application of group-theoretical methods in soil physics is considered. The interconnection between the choice of the space-time geometry in which the phenomenа under investigation are localized, and the physical laws governing these phenomena is analyzed. The dependence between the choice of quantitative standards of physical values and invariance of the laws describing the interconnections of these values is considered as a specific case. For some examples, the procedures of generalization of traditionаl symmetries are demonstrated. In particular, the principle of superposition of the symmetries of similarity is formulated for the theoretical description of the humidity characteristics of soil (HCS) and the thermophysical coefficients; the possibility of mathematical modeling of the temperature regime of soil without solving the heat conductivity equation is indicated. The possibility of deeper understanding, from the symmetry analysis viewpoint, of the structural and functional concept of the physical properties of soil is stressed. The considered problems are illustrated with specific equations.