Monitoring of soil moisture for drought risk assessment over the Brazilian semiarid region Marcelo Zeri, Regina Célia S. Alvalá, Rogério Carneiro, Gisleine Cunha-Zeri, José Maria Costa, Domingos Urbano, and José Marengo National center for monitoring and early warning of natural disasters (Cemaden) - brazil
The Brazilian semiarid Areas over 10 states 23 million inhabitants Lowest HDI in the country Long history of droughts and vulnerability
Monitoring of soil moisture Full implementation in 2016 Platforms of data collection (PCD) Agro Air temperature Relative Humidity Rainfall Wind direction and speed Solar radiation Net radiation Soil temperature (4 depths) Soil moisture (4 depths) Acqua Soil moisture (2 depths) Cellular network data transmission “Rural” network
Applications Real time monitoring of soil moisture and Soil Moisture Index: current status and recent trends Monthly average for long-term diagnostic of drought Comparison with satellite estimates
Soil Moisture Index (SMI) Also known as Available Water Capacity, or Relative Extractable Water Normalization of soil moisture by the available water Use of field capacity and wilting point from soil samples
Recent trends in soil moisture Zeri, M., S. Alvalá, R., Carneiro, R., Cunha-Zeri, G., Costa, J., Rossato Spatafora, L., Urbano, D., Vall-Llossera, M., Marengo, J., 2018. Tools for Communicating Agricultural Drought over the Brazilian Semiarid Using the Soil Moisture Index. Water 10. https://doi.org/10.3390/w10101421
Monthly average of SMI Average for each state’s sub-regions Currently being presented in monthly bulletins of drought conditions www.cemaden.gov.br
Support to remote sensing tools – January 2019 SMI Anomaly of Vegetation Supply Water Index (VSWI)* * Cunha, A.P.M., Alvalá, R.C., Nobre, C.A., Carvalho, M.A., 2015. Monitoring vegetative drought dynamics in the Brazilian semiarid region. Agric. For. Meteorol. 214–215, 494–505. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agrformet.2015.09.010
Comparison with satellite estimates Ongoing collaboration with Luciana Rossato, PhD, et al. (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, IEEC/UPC and SMOS Barcelona Expert Centre)
Future prospects Funding for maintenance Development of interactive visualization tools Download of data Inclusion in Integrated Drought Index currently available at www.cemaden.gov.br Refinement of stations locations Inclusion of new locations over new “official” semiarid areas