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NIR-red spectral space based new method for soil moisture monitoring

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Abstract

Drought is a complex natural disaster that occurs frequently. Soil moisture has been the main issue in remote monitoring of drought events as the most direct and important variable describing the drought. Spatio-temporal distribution and variation of soil moisture evidently affect surface evapotranspiration, agricultural water demand, etc. In this paper, a new simple method for soil moisture monitoring is developed using near-infrared versus red (NIR-red) spectral reflectance space. First, NIR-red spectral reflectance space is established using atmospheric and geometric corrected ETM+ data, which is manifested by a triangle shape, in which different surface covers have similar spatial distribution rules. Next, the model of soil moisture monitoring by remote sensing (SMMRS) is developed on the basis of the distribution characteristics of soil moisture in the NIR-red spectral reflectance space. Then, the SMMRS model is validated by comparison with field measured soil moisture data at different depths. The results showed that satellite estimated soil moisture by SMMRS is highly accordant with field measured data at 5 cm soil depth and average soil moisture at 0–20 cm soil depths, correlation coefficients are 0.80 and 0.87, respectively. This paper concludes that, being simple and effective, the SMMRS model has great potential to estimate surface moisture conditions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Remote Sensing and GIS, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China

    Zhan ZhiMing, Qin QiMing, Ghulan Abduwasit & Wang DongDong

  2. Environmental Protection Bureau of Dongcheng District, Beijing, 100007, China

    Zhan ZhiMing

Authors
  1. Zhan ZhiMing
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  2. Qin QiMing
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  3. Ghulan Abduwasit
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  4. Wang DongDong
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Qin QiMing.

Additional information

Supported by the Special Funds for the Major State Basic Research (973) Project (Grant No. G2000077900), the High-Tech Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2001AA135110) and The Post Doc Fellowship Project from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 2004035021)

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Zhan, Z., Qin, Q., Ghulan, A. et al. NIR-red spectral space based new method for soil moisture monitoring. SCI CHINA SER D 50, 283–289 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-007-2004-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-007-2004-6

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