Preprints
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8269412
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8269412
07 Sep 2023
 | 07 Sep 2023

Predicting rut depth with soil moisture estimates from ERA5-Land and in-situ measurements

Marian Schönauer, Anneli M. Ågren, Klaus Katzensteiner, Florian Hartsch, Paul Arp, Simon Drollinger, and Dirk Jaeger

Abstract. Spatiotemporal modelling is an innovative way of predicting soil moisture and has promising applications in supporting sustainable forest operations. One such application is the prediction of rutting, since rutting can cause severe damage to forest soils and ecological functions.

In this work, we used ERA5-Land soil moisture retrievals and several topographic indices to model the response variable, in-situ soil water content, by means of a random forest model. We then correlated the predicted soil moisture with rut depth from different trials.

Our spatiotemporal modelling approach successfully predicted soil moisture with a Kendall’s rank correlation coefficient of 0.62 (R2 of 64 %). The final model included the topographic depth-to-water index, slope, stream power index, topographic wetness index, as well as temporal components such as numeric variables derived from date and ERA5-Land soil moisture retrievals. These retrievals showed to be the most important predictor in the model, indicating a large temporal variation. The prediction of rut depth was also successful, resulting in a Kendall’s correlation coefficient of 0.63.

Our results demonstrate that by using data from several sources, including ERA5-Land retrievals, topographic indices and in-situ soil moisture measurements, we can accurately predict soil moisture and use this information to predict rut depth. This has practical applications in reducing the impact of heavy machinery on forest soils and avoiding wet areas during forest operations.

Journal article(s) based on this preprint

20 Jun 2024
Soil moisture modeling with ERA5-Land retrievals, topographic indices, and in situ measurements and its use for predicting ruts
Marian Schönauer, Anneli M. Ågren, Klaus Katzensteiner, Florian Hartsch, Paul Arp, Simon Drollinger, and Dirk Jaeger
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 28, 2617–2633, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-2617-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-2617-2024, 2024
Short summary
Marian Schönauer, Anneli M. Ågren, Klaus Katzensteiner, Florian Hartsch, Paul Arp, Simon Drollinger, and Dirk Jaeger

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

Comment types: AC – author | RC – referee | CC – community | EC – editor | CEC – chief editor | : Report abuse
  • RC1: 'Comment on egusphere-2023-1908', Anonymous Referee #1, 18 Oct 2023
    • AC1: 'Reply on RC1', Marian Schönauer, 27 Oct 2023
    • AC2: 'Reply on RC1', Marian Schönauer, 24 Nov 2023
  • RC2: 'Comment on egusphere-2023-1908', Anonymous Referee #2, 27 Oct 2023
    • AC3: 'Reply on RC2', Marian Schönauer, 24 Nov 2023