Production of available water content maps from existing soil properties datasets using pedotransfer models – towards application to spatial crop modeling
Domain:
agriculturegeospatialRecord type:
Soil water availability is crucial for ecosystem services, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa where agriculture depends heavily on rainfed systems, directly impacting food security. The key to estimating water available for crops lies in the Available Water Content (AWC) – a metric indicating the water that soil can retain and provide to plants. AWC plays a vital role in crop and ecological models and is particularly integral to spatial crop simulation models. Despite many digital soil mapping endeavors, the production of AWC maps remains limited. This study illustrates the initial phase in crafting a high-resolution AWC map for Burkina Faso, utilizing iSDA Africa's 30m soil properties maps and the USDA Rosetta pedotransfer model. It also frames a research question for a student project proposed during the IDIL graduate program launch event (Montpellier University, sept. 6, 2023), aimed at refining the AWC map development method, focusing on identifying and overcoming barriers to generalize the method for global application and to enhance the usability of AWC data in crop models.