Regional soil moisture monitoring network in the Raam catchment in the Netherlands

Abstract

We have established a soil moisture profile monitoring network in the 223 km 2 Raam Catchment, a tributary of the Meuse River in the Netherlands. This catchment faces water shortage during summers and excess of water during winters and after extreme precipitation events. Water management can benefit from reliable information on the soil water availability 15 in the unsaturated zone. In situ measurements provide a direct source of information on which water managers can base their decisions. Moreover, these measurements are commonly used as a reference for calibration and validation of soil moisture products derived from earth observations or obtained by model simulations. Distributed over the Raam Catchment, we have equipped 14 agricultural fields and one natural grass field with soil moisture and soil temperature monitoring instrumentation, consisting of Decagon 5TM sensors installed at depths of 5 cm, 10 cm, 20 cm, 40 cm and 80 cm. Soil-20 specific calibration functions that have been developed for the 5TM sensors under laboratory conditions lead to an accuracy of 0.02 m 3 m -3 . The first set of measurements has been retrieved for the period 5 April 2016 -4 April 2017. In this paper, we describe the Raam monitoring network and instrumentation, the soil-specific calibration of the sensors, the first year of measurements, and additional measurements (soil temperature, phreatic groundwater levels and meteorological data) and information (elevation, soil texture, land cover, and geohydrological model) available for performing scientific research. The 25 data is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.4121/uuid:2411bbb8-2161-4f31-985f-7b65b8448bc9.

A Methodology to Analyze Soil Moisture Characteristics Using GIS and Modeling Approach for Sustainable Crop Production

“…The concept of neutron scattering method is to measure the quantity of hydrogen nuclei existing per unit soil volume which is directly related and corresponding to the quantity of water molecules present in same volume. The procedure includes injection of a fast neutron source and counting number of slow neutrons for water content measurement [29]. To attain appropriation counting, rates are adjusted and calibrated to totals obtained in a pure water tank and then standardized against volumetric measurement of soil water content.…”

A signature‐based approach to quantify soil moisture dynamics under contrasting land‐uses

“…Used Hamburg‐Fuhlsbüttel station data (The Deutscher Wetterdienst, DWD, 2021)Raam (RM)Online. 2016–2017 data (Benninga et al, 2017) 2017–2018 data (Benninga, Carranza, Michiel‐Pezij, et al, 2018) 2018–2019 data (Benninga et al, 2020) Online. Used Volkel weather station data (The Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute, KNMI, 2021)Texas (TX)Online (Bongiovanni & Caldwell, 2019)Online (Bongiovanni & Caldwell, 2019)Maqu (MQ)Requested to Dr. Bob Su (z.su@utwente.nl) 5 cm sensor data is available online (Dorigo et al, 2011) Requested to Dr. Bob Su (z.su@utwente.nl)Oznet (OZ)Online (Smith et al, 2012)Online (Smith et al, 2012)…”

The Raam regional soil moisture monitoring network in the Netherlands

“…The soil moisture and temperature data are available at the 4TU.ResearchData data centre at https://doi.org/10.4121/uuid:dc364e97-d44a-403f-82a7-121902deeb56 (Benninga et al, 2017). The data are found under the "DATA" header.…”

“…The data set currently covers the period between 5 April 2016 and 4 April 2017. New data will be added to the data collection at https://doi.org/10.4121/uuid:2411bbb8-2161-4f31-985f-7b65b8448bc9 (Benninga et al, 2018). Data collection will continue until at least October 2019.…”