Investigation of Wetting Front Propagation Dynamics Using Soil Impedance Measurements: Implications for Modelling and Irrigation Scheduling

Jose Gutierrez Gnecchi (), Arturo Mendez Patiño, Fernando Landeros Paramo, Adriana del Carmen Tellez Anguiano and Daniel Lorias Espinoza ()

Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), 2015, vol. 29, issue 1, 197-210

Abstract: The authors propose a measurement method that divides the depth of the soil sample in discrete regions to investigate soil water propagation dynamics using soil impedance measurements. Experiments were conducted on a cylindrical phantom using a clay loam soil sample (60 % clay, 21 % loam and 19 % sand). The resulting impedance changes represent the wetting front (WF) propagation process at the different measurement depths. The measured impedance data is used to A) show graphically the wetting front propagation process, obtain B) a 1st order model, C) an ARX1821 model of the impedance change as a function of the irrigation volume applied and D) estimating changes in water content using a neural network. The results indicate that the proposed measurement technique can be used to detect and predict the movement of liquid trough the soil sample. The neural network permits inferring the water content from impedance and soil-water mixture temperature values. Changes in soil impedance in each segment, due to the water propagating downwards through the soil sample, can be used to study the dynamics of the wetting front, irrigation scheduling and model improvement from physical data. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015

Keywords: Soil moisture measurement; Wetting front detection; Soil impedance; Soil modelling (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:waterr:v:29:y:2015:i:1:p:197-210

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DOI: 10.1007/s11269-014-0835-4

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