HR: 13:40h
AN: H53H-01 [Abstracts]
TI: Soil moisture: applications and needs in vadose zone hydrology
AU: * Vereecken, H
EM: h.vereecken@fz-juelich.de
AF: Agrosphere (ICG-4), Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Leo Brand Straße, Juelich, NRW
52425, Germany
AU: Huisman, S
EM: s.huisman@fz-juelich.de
AF: Agrosphere (ICG-4), Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Leo Brand Straße, Juelich, NRW
52425, Germany
AU: Bogena, H
EM: h.bogena@fz-juelich.de
AF: Agrosphere (ICG-4), Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Leo Brand Straße, Juelich, NRW
52425, Germany
AU: Vanderborght, J
EM: j.vanderborght@fz-juelich.de
AF: Agrosphere (ICG-4), Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Leo Brand Straße, Juelich, NRW
52425, Germany
AU: Vrugt, J
EM: vrugt@lanl.gov
AF: Center for Nonlinear Studies (CNLS, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, Los
Alamos, NM 87544, United States
AU: Hopmans, J W
EM: jwhopmans@ucdavis.edu
AF: Department of Land, Air and Water Resources, 113 Veihmeyer Hall, Davis, CA 95616-
8628, United States
AB:
In this presentation, we address the state of the art in using soil moisture measurements to derive soil hydraulic
properties, to quantify water and energy fluxes in the vadose zone, to retrieve spatial and temporal dynamics of
soil moisture profiles, and to develop monitoring networks. We will discuss these issues at two different scales
important in vadose zone hydrology: the field and the catchment scale. Analyzing the value of soil moisture
measurements is motivated by our increasing ability to measure soil moisture due to the availability of novel non-
invasive measurement techniques at the field and catchment scale, of remote sensing platforms and improved
retrieval algorithms as well as of novel soil moisture network sensor technologies in providing high quality soil
moisture data with high spatial and temporal resolution. We advocate that optimal use of soil moisture
measurements will require further development of down- and upscaling algorithms to bridge the disparity in
scales between hydrological measurements and mathematical models, to improve data assimilation techniques
for retrieving the vertical and horizontal distribution of soil moisture including its temporal dynamics but also
hydrological parameters driving the flow of water and to explore the potential in combining hydrogeophysical
techniques with remote sensing measurement of soil moisture. With respect to the issue of upscaling we feel
that stochastic upscaling theories developed in vadose zone research have not really been optimally used at
scales larger than the field scale. This will be illustrated by applying stochastic theories in interpreting observed
soil moisture fields. Applications of these theories might help in bridging the gap between model and
measurement scale at larger scales.
DE: 1865 Soils (0486)
DE: 1866 Soil moisture
DE: 1875 Vadose zone
DE: 1899 General or miscellaneous
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting