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Warning

DEPRECATED: This table-based input format is deprecated as of 2025. Please use the modern YAML format instead. See our transition guide for migration help.

SUEWS_Soil.txt

SUEWS_Soil.txt specifies the characteristics of the sub-surface soil below each of the non-water surface types (Paved, Bldgs, EveTr, DecTr, Grass, BSoil). The model does not have a soil store below the water surfaces. Note that these sub-surface soil stores are different to the bare soil/unmamnaged surface cover type. Each of the non-water surface types need to link to soil characteristics specified here. If the soil characteristics are assumed to be the same for all surface types, use a single code value to link the characteristics here with the SoilTypeCode columns in SUEWS_NonVeg.txt and SUEWS_Veg.txt.

Soil moisture can either be provided using observational data in the met forcing file (the xsmd column when SMDMethod = 1 or 2), or modelled by SUEWS (SMDMethod = 0).

Using Observed Soil Moisture

When using observed soil moisture (SMDMethod = 1 for volumetric or 2 for gravimetric), you must:

1. Provide the xsmd column in your forcing data with observed soil moisture values

2. Configure the soil_observation block in your YAML site properties

The soil_observation block describes the sensor installation and measurement setup:

model:
  physics:
    smdmethod:
      value: 1  # 1=volumetric, 2=gravimetric

sites:
- name: MySite
  properties:
    soil_observation:
      depth: 200.0        # mm - sensor installation depth
      smcap: 0.40         # fraction - saturated moisture content
      soil_not_rocks: 0.9 # fraction - soil volume (not rocks)
      bulk_density: 1.3   # g/cm³ - only needed for gravimetric (SMDMethod=2)

Note

The soil_observation parameters describe the measurement setup, not the SUEWS model’s soil properties. These values are used to convert observed volumetric/gravimetric moisture to a soil moisture deficit (mm).

Note

Soil observation configuration applies to the entire site, not individual land cover types. Since a soil moisture sensor measures at a single physical location, the same conversion parameters are used across all land cover types within the grid. If you have multiple sensors with different installation depths or soil characteristics, run each grid configuration separately using supy.run_supy().

No.	Column Name	Use	Description
1	Code	L	Code linking to a corresponding look-up table.
2	SoilDepth	MD	Depth of soil beneath the surface [mm]
3	SoilStoreCap	MD	Limit value for SoilDepth [mm]
4	SatHydraulicCond	MD	Hydraulic conductivity for saturated soil [mm s-1]
5	SoilDensity	MD	Soil density [kg m-3]
6	InfiltrationRate	O	Infiltration rate.

An example SUEWS_Soil.txt can be found below:

1    	 2         	 3            	 4                	 5           	 6
Code 	 SoilDepth 	 SoilStoreCap 	 SatHydraulicCond 	 SoilDensity 	 InfiltrationRate
551  	 350       	 150          	 5.00E-04         	 -999        	 -999             	 ! 	 Swindon   (below   Paved)  	 Ward   et   al.   (2013)
552  	 350       	 150          	 5.00E-04         	 -999        	 -999             	 ! 	 Swindon   (below   Built)  	 Ward   et   al.   (2013)
553  	 350       	 150          	 5.00E-04         	 -999        	 -999             	 ! 	 Swindon   (below   others) 	 Ward   et   al.   (2013)
661  	 350       	 150          	 5.00E-04         	 -999        	 -999             	 ! 	 London
-9
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