On the Application of Probabilistic Hydrometeorological Simulation of Soil Moisture across Different Stations in India

Abstract

An application of a proposed hydrometeorological approach for probabilistic simulation of soil moisture is carried out. The time series of in-situ soil moisture and meteorological variables at monthly scale from a few monitoring stations having different soil-hydrologic properties across India are utilized. Preliminary investigation with both precipitation and near-surface air-temperature as meteorological variables to establish that the strength of association between soil moisture and precipitation is more significant as compared to that between soil moisture and temperature. Precipitation-based probabilistic estimation of soil moisture using the proposed hy-drometeorological approach is tested with in-situ observed soil moisture, CPC model output and with soil moisture data of the Climate Change Initiative (CCI) project. The parameter of the developed model is linked to the soil-hydrologic characteristics through Hydrologic Soil Group (HSG) classification. Higher values of model parameter (dependence parameter (θ) for the selected cop-ula) correspond to HSG A and B having higher soil porosity, whereas, lower values correspond to HSG B and C having lower soil porosity.