INVESTIGATION OF THE POSSIBILITY OF EXTENDING SOIL MOISTURE SENSOR DATA

Abstract

Smart irrigation requires soil moisture (SM) data in order to determine the water needs of each point within the agricultural field. The aim of the study is to develop methodologies for testing different approaches and to present the provisional results. A complex methodology was applied to process and analyze the sensor data. First spatial variability was assessed using regression and geostatistical interpolation. A vertical distribution estimation was performed by extending the SM values of each sensor for all their depth levels. The latest results of this method show that the statistical correlations between the different depths can be used to characterize the soil types and their corresponding vertical SM distribution.