TY - JOUR
T1 - A novel laboratory method for the retrieval of the soil water retention curve from shortwave infrared reflectance
AU - Norouzi, Sarem
AU - Sadeghi, Morteza
AU - Tuller, Markus
AU - Ebrahimian, Hamed
AU - Liaghat, Abdolmajid
AU - Jones, Scott B.
AU - de Jonge, Lis W.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Author(s)
PY - 2023/11
Y1 - 2023/11
N2 - The soil water retention curve (SWRC) is an essential soil property that relates soil water content and matric potential. It plays a crucial role in soil water dynamics and the understanding of various hydrological phenomena at the land surface, including infiltration, runoff, evaporation, and energy exchange processes. In recent years, proximal sensing methods have shown great potential for retrieving this challenging-to-measure property from spectral reflectance. However, a physically-based approach is still lacking as current methods rely on empirical data-driven algorithms. Here we propose a novel physics-based laboratory method that, for the first time, enables direct estimation of the entire SWRC from saturated to dry using soil water content/reflectance data pairs within the shortwave infrared domain. The main hypothesis underlying the new method is that soil optical properties not only vary with soil water content but also with the pore scale distribution of capillary and adsorbed soil water. For evaluation, retrieved soil water retention curves of 21 soils that vastly differ in physical and hydraulic properties were compared to direct measurements. The results suggest that the new method is a rapid and efficient alternative to established laboratory measurement methods.
AB - The soil water retention curve (SWRC) is an essential soil property that relates soil water content and matric potential. It plays a crucial role in soil water dynamics and the understanding of various hydrological phenomena at the land surface, including infiltration, runoff, evaporation, and energy exchange processes. In recent years, proximal sensing methods have shown great potential for retrieving this challenging-to-measure property from spectral reflectance. However, a physically-based approach is still lacking as current methods rely on empirical data-driven algorithms. Here we propose a novel physics-based laboratory method that, for the first time, enables direct estimation of the entire SWRC from saturated to dry using soil water content/reflectance data pairs within the shortwave infrared domain. The main hypothesis underlying the new method is that soil optical properties not only vary with soil water content but also with the pore scale distribution of capillary and adsorbed soil water. For evaluation, retrieved soil water retention curves of 21 soils that vastly differ in physical and hydraulic properties were compared to direct measurements. The results suggest that the new method is a rapid and efficient alternative to established laboratory measurement methods.
KW - Laboratory method
KW - Optical proximal sensing
KW - Shortwave infrared reflectance
KW - Soil hydraulic properties
KW - Soil water retention curve
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85174207697&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jhydrol.2023.130284
DO - 10.1016/j.jhydrol.2023.130284
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85174207697
SN - 0022-1694
VL - 626
JO - Journal of Hydrology
JF - Journal of Hydrology
IS - Parrt B
M1 - 130284
ER -