Downscaling Techniques for Ground State Information

Reliable knowledge of soil moisture is required for numerous Army and civilian applications including mobility assessments, flood forecasting, agricultural management, erosion mitigation, and control of vector-borne diseases. Soil moisture cannot be measured at the resolution that is required for these purposes (approx. 30 m grid cells), so a simple but accurate downscaling tool is needed. The purpose of this SBIR project is to develop a commercially-viable downscaling tool with flexible data inputs. The foundation for the proposed tool is the Equilibrium Moisture from Topography modeling framework, which estimates soil moisture from high-resolution topographic data. This approach is simple and relies on universally available data. It is also broad enough to accept additional data inputs if desired by users. In the project, the methodology will be generalized to accept more diverse information, it will be implemented in software that meets the needs of targeted customers, and it will be commercialized in a sustainable manner.