Soil Observation Configuration

Tip

Need help? Please let us know in the SUEWS Community.
Please report issues with the manual on GitHub Issues (or use Report Issue for This Page for page-specific feedback).
Please cite SUEWS with proper information from our Zenodo page.

4.3.42. Soil Observation Configuration#

Configuration for observed soil moisture measurements.

Required when SMDMethod = 1 (volumetric) or 2 (gravimetric). These parameters describe the sensor installation and measurement setup, not the physical soil properties used by the SUEWS water balance model.

Note:

depth: Where the sensor is installed, not SUEWS’s modelled soil depth
smcap: Maximum observable moisture, not SUEWS’s soil storage capacity
bulk_density: Only used for gravimetric (SMDMethod=2) conversion

Parameters:

depth#

Depth of the soil moisture sensor installation

Unit:: mm
Status:: Required

smcap#

Maximum observable soil moisture (saturated θ or w at sensor location). For volumetric (SMDMethod=1), this is typically ≤1.0 (m³/m³). For gravimetric (SMDMethod=2), values >1.0 are possible (g water/g dry soil).

Unit:: fraction or g g^-1
Status:: Required

soil_not_rocks#

Fraction of the measured soil volume that is soil (not rocks)

Unit:: dimensionless
Status:: Required

bulk_density#

Soil bulk density at the measurement point (used for gravimetric conversion)

Unit:: g cm^-3
Status:: Required

ref#: The ref parameter group is defined by the Reference Info structure.