Year‐round estimation of soil moisture content using temporally variable soil hydraulic parameters. Issue 6 (10th February 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Sipek, Vaclav; Tesar, Miroslav
• Is Part Of: Hydrological processes. Volume 31:Issue 6(2017)
• Page Start: 1438
• Page End: 1452
• Publication Date: 2017-02-10
• Subjects: hydrological modelling -- pore‐size distribution -- saturated hydraulic conductivity -- seasonal variability -- soil hydraulic parameters -- soil moisture; Hydrology -- Periodicals; Hydrology -- Research -- Periodicals; Hydrologic models -- Periodicals; Hydrological forecasting -- Periodicals; 631.432
• DOI: 10.1002/hyp.11121
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0885-6087

Abstract

Abstract: Soil moisture plays a key role in the hydrological cycle as it controls the flux of water between soil, vegetation, and atmosphere. This study is focused on a year‐round estimation of soil moisture in a forested mountain area using the bucket model approach. For this purpose, three different soil moisture models are utilised. The procedure is based on splitting the whole year into two complement periods (dormant and vegetation). Model parameters are allowed to vary between the two periods and also from year to year in the calibration procedure. Consequently, two sets of average model parameters corresponding to dormant and vegetation seasons are proposed. The process of splitting is strongly supported by the experimental data, and it enables us to variate saturated hydraulic conductivity and pore‐size characterisation. The use of the two different parameter sets significantly enhances the simulation of two (Teuling and Troch model and soil water balance model‐green–ampt [SWBM‐GA]) out of three models in the 6‐year period from 2009 to 2014. For these two models, the overall Nash‐Sutcliffe coefficient increased from 0.64 to 0.79 and from 0.55 to 0.80. The third model (the Laio approach) proved to be insensitive to parameter changes due to its insufficient drainage prediction. The variability of the warm and cold parameter sets between particular years is more pronounced in the warm periods. The cold periods exhibited approximately similar character during all 6 years.