Soil profile water content sensing system based on TDR

Devices resulting from this development will greatly enhance the development of food crops designed for effective water utilization and thus facilitate the genetic improvement in food yield per volume of water. Efficient use of water in agriculture can be facilitated through accurate root zone water content monitoring and control. Crop yields and crop quality can benefit through the prevention of drought and over-watering. Outside of agriculture, watershed management can become much more effective. Flood and mudslide forecasting can be facilitated. Earth-filled dams, levees and canal banks can be effectively monitored for conditions leading to failure. World-wide soil water resource accounting can be facilitated using these devices as ground truthing elements for space-based ground penetrating radar.