Abstract
ABSTRACT: There is an increasing interest in the application of geophysical surveys to assess the soil water content (SWC) variation in both spatial and temporal scales. In this work, a geophysical survey was carried out at an experimental farm in dry and wet conditions. We determined the SWC data measured with the gravimetric method, apparent electrical conductivity by electromagnetic induction (EMI) and amplitude of Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) data at different frequencies. Geophysical sensors are an efficient tool for soil mapping at high resolution; however; there is a need to improve the knowledge on their capabilities and limitations under field conditions, especially for GPR. The geophysical survey provides an example of the application of these techniques to evaluate the spatial variability of SWC in two different water conditions. The contribution of geophysical data in understanding the spatial variability of SWC was investigated applying both the traditional analysis and spatial techniques. The results indicated that the geophysical data captured the spatial variation of SWC in non-invasively way especially in dry condition. However, they also showed the complex interplay between factors controlling SWC and geophysical responses and the drawbacks of geophysical sensors under inhomogeneous water conditions. Our findings also highlighted that EMI survey provides the potential to map the SWC variability within a relatively short time. The results obtained in this research are important from the agronomical viewpoint, since they allow increasing efficiency of irrigation practices, which is important in times characterized by climate change.
Highlights
Soil water content (SWC) is a key component of the hydrological cycle, since it controls evapotranspiration, groundwater recharge and generation of runoff (Vereecken et al, 2014)
We determined the soil water content (SWC) data measured with the gravimetric method, apparent electrical conductivity by electromagnetic induction (EMI) and amplitude of Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) data at different frequencies
This study provides an example of geophysical application to evaluate GPR contribution in understanding the spatial variability of SWC in two different water conditions applying both the traditional analysis and spatial techniques, aimed at improving the use of EMI and GPR maps to describe spatial SWC patterns
Summary
Soil water content (SWC) is a key component of the hydrological cycle, since it controls evapotranspiration, groundwater recharge and generation of runoff (Vereecken et al, 2014). Investigation of the spatial pattern of SWC is having more attention with the increase in the availability of non-invasive soil sensors that integrate sparse direct sampling (Landrum et al, 2015) Geophysical sensors, such as electromagnetic induction (EMI) and ground penetrating radar (GPR), are gaining interest as tools to obtain spatially distributed data that could be correlated with soil and hydrologic properties (Zhu et al, 2010; Minet et al, 2013). GPR amplitude and measurements repeated in different water conditions could provide information on highly dynamic soil properties (Knight et al, 1997; De Benedetto et al, 2013) These technologies have potential to indicate features that influence the water movement, there is a need to further the knowledge on their capabilities and limitations under field conditions, especially for GPR applications. This study provides an example of geophysical application to evaluate GPR contribution in understanding the spatial variability of SWC in two different water conditions applying both the traditional analysis and spatial techniques, aimed at improving the use of EMI and GPR maps to describe spatial SWC patterns
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