Project Number: 1265-13610-027-11
Project Type: Reimbursable

Start Date: Mar 03, 2008
End Date: Mar 02, 2011

Objective:
The overall primary goal of this study is to have a quantitative understanding of the soil moisture and resultant vadose zone hydrologic processes and controls (i.e., soil, topography, vegetation, and hydroclimate) at different space and time scales. This will involve these objectives; 1) determine the dynamics of correlation structure of surface soil moisture across space and time scales, 2) evaluate the dominant physical controls for soil moisture evolution and resultant vadose zone fluxes, and 3) develop aggregation/disaggregation rule(s) for determining ¿effective¿ hydrologic parameters.

Approach:
The dynamics of correlation structure of surface soil moisture across space and time scales will be studied using ground-based and remote sensing data sets from three selected watersheds in different climatic conditions ranging from semi-arid to humid using. Dominant physical controls (soil properties, vegetation types, topographic indexes, and precipitation intensity/duration) for soil moisture evolution and resultant vadose zone fluxes (evapotranspiration, infiltration, shallow ground water recharge) at different spatial scales (hill-slope, remote sensing footprint, landscape, watershed, region) will be evaluated in the selected, and hydro-climatic conditions. Aggregation/disaggregation rule(s) for determining ¿effective¿ hydrologic parameters (related to the physical control representing the ensemble vadose zone flux behavior) at different spatial scales (hill-slope, remote sensing footprint, landscape, watershed, region) will be established in the selected watersheds/hydro-climatic regions and test their mutual transferability.