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Publications

NIBIOs employees contribute to several hundred scientific articles and research reports every year. You can browse or search in our collection which contains references and links to these publications as well as other research and dissemination activities. The collection is continously updated with new and historical material.

2019

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Abstract

Preferential flow may become significant in partially frozen soils because infiltration can occur through large, initially air-filled pores surrounded by a soil matrix with limited infiltration capacity. The objectives of this study were to develop and evaluate a dual-permeability approach for simulating water flow and heat transport in macroporous soils undergoing freezing and thawing. This was achieved by introducing physically based equations for soil freezing and thawing into the dual-permeability model MACRO. Richards’ equation and the heat flow equation were loosely coupled using the generalized Clapeyron equation for the soil micropore domain. Freezing and thawing of macropore water is governed by a first-order equation for energy transfer between the micropore and macropore domains. We assumed that macropore water was unaffected by capillary forces, so that water in macropores freezes at 0°C. The performance of the model was evaluated for four test cases: (i) redistribution of water in the micropore domain during freezing, (ii) a comparison between the first-order energy transfer approach and the heat conduction equation, (iii) infiltration and water flow in frozen soil with an initially air-filled macropore domain, and (iv) thawing from the soil surface during constant-rate rainfall. Results show that the model behaves in accordance with the current understanding of water flow and heat transport in frozen macroporous soil. To improve modeling of water and heat flow in frozen soils, attention should now be focused on providing experimental data suitable for evaluating models that account for macropore flow.

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Abstract

Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data have gained interest for a variety of remote sensing applications, given the capability of SAR sensors to operate independent of solar radiation and day/night conditions. However, the radiometric quality of SAR images is hindered by speckle noise, which affects further image processing and interpretation. As such, speckle reduction is a crucial pre-processing step in many remote sensing studies based on SAR imagery. This study proposes a new adaptive de-speckling method based on a Gaussian Markov Random Field (GMRF) model. The proposed method integrates both pixel-wised and contextual information using a weighted summation technique. As a by-product of the proposed method, a de-speckled pseudo-span image, which is obtained from the least-squares analysis of the de-speckled multi-polarization channels, is also produced. Experimental results from the medium resolution, fully polarimetric L-band ALOS PALSAR data demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm compared to other well-known de-speckling approaches. The de-speckled images produced by the proposed method maintainthe mean value of the original image in homogenous areas, while preserving the edges of features in heterogeneous regions. In particular, the equivalent number of look (ENL) achieved using the proposed method improves by about 15% and 47% compared to the NL-SAR and SARBM3D de-speckling approaches, respectively. Other evaluation indices, such as the mean and variance of the ratio image also reveal the superiority of the proposed method relative to other de-speckling approaches examined in this study.

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Abstract

The evolution of phosphorus (P) management decision support tools (DSTs) and systems (DSS), in support of food and environmental security has been most strongly affected in developed regions by national strategies (i) to optimize levels of plant available P in agricultural soils, and (ii) to mitigate P runoff to water bodies. In the United States, Western Europe, and New Zealand, combinations of regulatory and voluntary strategies, sometimes backed by economic incentives, have often been driven by reactive legislation to protect water bodies. Farmer‐specific DSSs, either based on modeling of P transfer source and transport mechanisms, or when coupled with farm‐specific information or local knowledge, have typically guided best practices, education, and implementation, yet applying DSSs in data poor catchments and/or where user adoption is poor hampers the effectiveness of these systems. Recent developments focused on integrated digital mapping of hydrologically sensitive areas and critical source areas, sometimes using real‐time data and weather forecasting, have rapidly advanced runoff modeling and education. Advances in technology related to monitoring, imaging, sensors, remote sensing, and analytical instrumentation will facilitate the development of DSSs that can predict heterogeneity over wider geographical areas. However, significant challenges remain in developing DSSs that incorporate “big data” in a format that is acceptable to users, and that adequately accounts for catchment variability, farming systems, and farmer behavior. Future efforts will undoubtedly focus on improving efficiency and conserving phosphate rock reserves in the face of future scarcity or prohibitive cost. Most importantly, the principles reviewed here are critical for sustainable agriculture.

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Abstract

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