Hydraulic conductivity

In science and engineering, hydraulic conductivity (K, in SI units of meters per second), is a property of porous materials, soils and rocks, that describes the ease with which a fluid (usually water) can move through the pore space, or fracture network.^[1] It depends on the intrinsic permeability (k, unit: m²) of the material, the degree of saturation, and on the density and viscosity of the fluid. Saturated hydraulic conductivity, K_sat, describes water movement through saturated media. By definition, hydraulic conductivity is the ratio of volume flux to hydraulic gradient yielding a quantitative measure of a saturated soil's ability to transmit water when subjected to a hydraulic gradient.