Representation of space–time variability of soil moisture

A simplified spatial-temporal soil moisture model driven by stochastic spatial rainfall forcing is proposed. The model is mathematically tractable, and allows the spatial and temporal structure of soil moisture fields, induced by the spatial-temporal variability of rainfall and the spatial variability of vegetation, to be explored analytically. The influence of the main model parameters, reflecting the spatial scale of rain cells, the soil storage capacity, the rainfall interception and the soil water loss rate (representing evaporation and deep infiltration) is investigated. The variabilities of the spatially averaged soil moisture process, and that averaged in both space and time, are derived. The present analysis focuses on spatially uniform vegetation conditions; a follow-up paper will incorporate stochastically heterogeneous vegetation.

[1]  Salvatore Manfreda,et al.  DREAM: a distributed model for runoff, evapotranspiration, and antecedent soil moisture simulation , 2005 .

[2]  I. Rodríguez‐Iturbe,et al.  Ecohydrology of Water-Controlled Ecosystems: Soil Moisture and Plant Dynamics , 2005 .

[3]  I. Rodríguez‐Iturbe,et al.  Soil Water Balance and Ecosystem Response to Climate Change , 2004, The American Naturalist.

[4]  M. Sale,et al.  An analytical method for predicting surface soil moisture from rainfall observations , 2003 .

[5]  John D. Albertson,et al.  Temporal dynamics of soil moisture variability: 1. Theoretical basis , 2003 .

[6]  I. Rodríguez‐Iturbe,et al.  Hydrologic controls on soil carbon and nitrogen cycles. I. Model definition. , 2003 .

[7]  Paolo D'Odorico,et al.  Hydrologic controls on soil carbon and nitrogen cycles. I. Modeling scheme , 2003 .

[8]  Luca Ridolfi,et al.  Plants in water-controlled ecosystems: active role in hydrologic processes and response to water stress: III. Vegetation water stress , 2001 .

[9]  Luca Ridolfi,et al.  Plants in water-controlled ecosystems: active role in hydrologic processes and response to water stress: II. Probabilistic soil moisture dynamics , 2001 .

[10]  P. Raats,et al.  Developments in soil-water physics since the mid 1960s , 2001 .

[11]  V. Isham,et al.  Probabilistic modelling of water balance at a point: the role of climate, soil and vegetation , 1999, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences.

[12]  Fabio Castelli,et al.  Mutual interaction of soil moisture state and atmospheric processes , 1996 .

[13]  A. Rinaldo,et al.  On the spatial organization of soil moisture fields , 1995 .

[14]  David S. G. Thomas,et al.  World atlas of desertification. , 1994 .

[15]  D. Montgomery,et al.  A physically based model for the topographic control on shallow landsliding , 1994 .

[16]  Dara Entekhabi,et al.  Analytical framework for the characterization of the space-time variability of soil moisture , 1994 .

[17]  Scaling, soil moisture and evapotranspiration in runoff models , 1994 .

[18]  David R. Cox,et al.  A simple spatial-temporal model of rainfall , 1988, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. A. Mathematical and Physical Sciences.

[19]  Erik H. Vanmarcke,et al.  Random Fields: Analysis and Synthesis. , 1985 .