Evaluation of default, soil-specific, and clay content correction calibration functions for dielectric sensors in soils with differing properties

Pečan, Urša (author), Kastelec, Damijana (author), Pintar, Marina (author)

Correct soil water content measurement is important for various environmental and agricultural applications. The aim of thisstudy was to evaluate the performance of two commercially available dielectric sensors, the SM150T (Delta-T Devices) and TRIME-Pico 32(IMKO). We evaluated the manufacturer’s calibration functions and the two-point calibration function recommended by Delta-T Devices.The coefficients of the two-point calibration showed a statistically significant dependence on clay content. Because the soils testedcontained a wide range of clay contents, a clay content correction function was developed. Soil-specific calibration functions were alsodeveloped. In general, measurement errors were the largest when the manufacturer’s calibration was used, but were smaller for the SM150T[root mean square error (RMSE) of 0.011 to0.051m3m−3] compared to the TRIME-Pico 32 (RMSE of 0.030 to0.060m3m−3). The errorsdecreased after applying the clay content correction function for TRIME-Pico 32. For both sensor types, the two-point calibration reducedthe errors, and the soil-specific calibration yielded the lowest error rates.

• Language: English
• Keywords: soil water, measurements, soil properties, dielectric sensors, calibration
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: BF - Biotechnical Faculty
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Publication date: 22.03.2022
• Year: 2022
• Number of pages: 11 str.
• Numbering: Vol. 148, iss. 6 (04022016)
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-135668
• UDC: 631.4
• ISSN on article: 0733-9437
• DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)IR.1943-4774.0001677
• COBISS.SI-ID: 102113795
• Publication date in RUL: 24.03.2022

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Journal of irrigation and drainage engineering
• Shortened title: J. irrig. drain. eng.
• Publisher: American Society of Civil Engineers
• ISSN: 0733-9437
• COBISS.SI-ID: 6405895

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.
• Licensing start date: 22.03.2022

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: voda v tleh, vsebnost vode v tleh, lastnosti tal, meritve, dielektrični senzorji, kalibracija

Projects

• Funder: ARRS - Slovenian Research Agency
• Project number: P4-0085
• Name: Agroekosistemi

• Funder: Other - Other funder or multiple funders
• Funding programme: Ministry of Education, Science and Sport, Republic of Slovenia; grant to Ph.D. Student