Mapping Root Zone Soil Moisture Using Remotely Sensed Optical Imagery
Publication: Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Volume 129, Issue 5
Abstract
Field-based soil moisture measurements are cumbersome. Remote sensing techniques based on active or passive microwave data have limitations. This paper presents and validates a new method based on land surface energy balances using remotely sensed optical data (including thermal infrared), which allows field and landscape-scale mapping of soil moisture depth-averaged through the root zone of existing vegetation. Root zone depth can be variable when crops are emerging. The pixel-wise “evaporative fraction” (ratio of latent heat flux to net available energy) is related to volumetric soil moisture through a standard regression curve that is independent of soil and vegetation type. Validation with measured root zone soil moisture in cropped soils in Mexico and Pakistan has a root mean square error of the error is less than in 90% of cases. Consequently, soil moisture data should be presented in class intervals of The utility of this method is demonstrated at the field scale using multitemporal thematic mapper imagery for irrigated areas near Cortazar in Mexico, and for river basin-scale water resources distribution in Pakistan. The potential limitation is the presence of clouds and the time lag between consecutive images with field-scale resolution. With the falling price of optical satellite imagery, this technique should gain wider acceptance with river basin planners, watershed managers, and irrigation and drainage engineers.
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Published In
Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Volume 129 • Issue 5 • October 2003
Pages: 326 - 335
Copyright
Copyright © 2003 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Apr 2, 2002
Accepted: Aug 16, 2002
Published online: Sep 15, 2003
Published in print: Oct 2003
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