Assessment of Water Cloud Model based on SAR and optical satellite data for surface soil moisture retrievals over agricultural area

Authors : Rida KHELLOUK, Ahmed BARAKAT, Aafaf EL JAZOULİ, Hayat LİONBOUİ, Tarik BENABDELOUAHAB

Pages : 243-250

Doi:10.18393/ejss.926813

View : 18 | Download : 12

Publication Date : 2021-07-01

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :Water availability to plants a significant role in agricultural areas, especially in arid and semi-arid areas. This research aimed to evaluate the potential of Water Cloud Model insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(WCM); for retrieving surface soil moisture, which is associated to water availability, in a semi-arid areas based on the combination between Sentinel-1B SAR insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(Synthetic Aperture Radar); and optical Sentinel-2B data. The performance of the applied model was assessed using ground observed soil moisture insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(0-5 cm);. Accuracy evaluation was performed by the cross-validation method insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(k-fold);, it showed a coefficients of determination insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(R2); of 0.65 and RMSE of 1.45%. The obtained results show a good concordance between retrieved model and ground observed surface soil moisture. In addition, this model was used for the mapping spatio-temporal variation of soil moisture at high spatial resolution in the study areas. This approach could be used by environmentalists and decision-makers as a practical tool for monitoring and estimating the change of surface moisture content.
Keywords : Remote sensing, Soil moisture, Sentinel 1B, Sentinel 2B, WCM, SAR, agricultural areas