Scaling of soil moisture: A hydrologic perspective

Abstract

Soil moisture is spatially and temporally highly variable, and it influences a range of environmental processes in a nonlinear manner. This leads to scale effects that need to be understood for improved prediction of moisture dependent processes. We provide some introductory material on soil moisture, and then review results from the literature relevant to a variety of scaling techniques applicable to soil moisture. This review concentrates on spatial scaling with brief reference to results on temporal scaling. Scaling techniques are divided into behavioral techniques and process-based techniques. We discuss the statistical distribution of soil moisture, spatial correlation of soil moisture ..