Submitted to: Agronomy Abstracts
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: August 1, 2001
Publication Date: November 1, 2001
Citation: Seyfried, M.S. 2001. Use of remote sensing for upscaling soil water models. Agronomy Abstracts. Technical Abstract: Soil water content controls, to a large degree, processes of plant growth, groundwater recharge and overland flow that are critical for the management of rangelands in the western USA. Direct measurement of soil water is constrained to very small scales and models that describe soil water content have been developed and tested at relatively small scales. Our understanding of the processes involved needs to be applied and aggregated to much larger areas, or upscaled. This process of upscaling almost inevitably results in a reduction in simulation precision and detail. Modeling can address this by focusing on dominant processes. We have investigated the use of remote sensing to provide the following critical spatial data: type of vegetation cover, amount of vegetation cover, leaf area index, and critical soil aggregate delineations. We have found that relatively simple models can capture basic soil water dynamics and that modeled soil water dynamics are consistent with remotely sensed vegetation parameters.