Search results for "soil"

Magnetometry in Environmental Sciences : Studying Environmental Structure Changes and Environmental Pollution

2018

On the use of unmanned aerial systems for environmental monitoring

2018

[EN] Environmental monitoring plays a central role in diagnosing climate and management impacts on natural and agricultural systems; enhancing the understanding of hydrological processes; optimizing the allocation and distribution of water resources; and assessing, forecasting, and even preventing natural disasters. Nowadays, most monitoring and data collection systems are based upon a combination of ground-based measurements, manned airborne sensors, and satellite observations. These data are utilized in describing both small-and large-scale processes, but have spatiotemporal constraints inherent to each respective collection system. Bridging the unique spatial and temporal divides that li…

SMOS-IC: An Alternative SMOS Soil Moisture and Vegetation Optical Depth Product

2017

© 2017 by the authors. The main goal of the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission over land surfaces is the production of global maps of soil moisture (SM) and vegetation optical depth (τ) based on multi-angular brightness temperature (TB) measurements at L-band. The operational SMOS Level 2 and Level 3 soil moisture algorithms account for different surface effects, such as vegetation opacity and soil roughness at 4 km resolution, in order to produce global retrievals of SM and τ. In this study, we present an alternative SMOS product that was developed by INRA (Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique) and CESBIO (Centre d'Etudes Spatiales de la BIOsphère). One of the main go…

The use of barley straw residues to avoid high erosion and runoff rates on persimmon plantations in Eastern Spain under low frequency-high magnitude …

2016

[EN] Soil and water losses due to agricultural mismanagement are high and non-sustainable in many orchards. An experiment was set up with rainfall simulation at 78 mm h(-1) over 1 hour on 20 paired plots of 2 m(2) (bare and straw covered) in new persimmon plantations in Eastern Spain. Effects of straw cover on the control of soil and water losses were assessed. An addition of 60% straw cover (75 gm(-2)) resulted in delayed ponding and runoff generation and consequently reduced water losses from 60% to 13% of total rainfall. The straw cover reduced raindrop impact and thus sediment detachment from 1014 to 47 g plot(-1) h(-1). The erosion rate was reduced from 5.1 to 0.2 Mg ha-(1) h(-1). The …

Análisis y valoración de los sistemas de evaluación de suelos en España. Evolución, tendencias actuales y perspectivas futuras

1997

23 páginas, 5 cuadros.

Statistical check of USLE-M and USLE-MM to predict bare plot soil loss in two Italian environments

2018

The USLE-M and the USLE-MM estimate event plot soil loss. In both models, the erosivity term is given by the runoff coefficient, QR, times the single-storm erosion index, EI30. In the USLE-MM, QREI30is raised to an exponent b1> 1 whereas b1= 1 is assumed in the USLE-M. Simple linear regression analysis can be applied to parameterize both models, but logarithmically transformed data have to be used for USLE-MM. Parameterizing the USLE-MM with nonlinear regression of untransformed data could be a more appropriate procedure. A statistical check of the two suggested models (USLE-M and USLE-MM), considering two alternative parameterization procedures for the USLE-MM, was carried out for the Mass…

BIO–GEL – a new type of organic fertilizer

2017

A new technology for the production of the BIO -GEL organic fertilizer which is based on physical phenomena with no chemicals used has been suggested. The technology involves reproduction of “wild” microorganisms in peat, biohumus, sapropel, fertile soil. In the course of the production process natural bacteria are hardened at temperatures above 70°С and at low temperatures below - 20°С. BIO-GEL has combined the previously incompatible properties of inoculants, fungicides and humates.Field studies conducted for several years on sandy testing grounds at extremely high temperatures in the south of Ukraine have shown that the new fertilizer has pronounced properties of a natural herbicide, act…

How much can regional agri-environmental measures contribute to SOC stocking in the soils of Sicily?

2014

Soils have a great potential in stocking soil organic carbon SOC, but how much can human activities, and particularly agricultural ones, contribute to increase (or decrease) the SOC content? Which kind of agricultural practices are the most effective? From the soil database of Sicily we have selected 52 profiles, whose first 40 cm from the soil surface were analyzed for the SOC, of which 15 analyzed also for nitrogen N content, localized in the clayey hills and limestone marine terraces of the western Sicily, cultivated with grain crops and orchards (mainly olive groves and vineyards), surveyed and analyzed in a period from 1995 to 2008. By interviews to the farmers owners of those parcels,…

A comparison between the single ring pressure infiltrometer and simplified falling head techniques

2013

Testing the relative performances of the single ring pressure infiltrometer (PI) and simplified falling head (SFH) techniques to determine the field saturated soil hydraulic conductivity, Kfs, at the near point scale may help to better establish the usability of these techniques for interpreting and simulating hydrological processes. A sampling of 10 Sicilian sites showed that the measured Kfs was generally higher with the SFH technique than the PI one, with statistically significant differences by a factor varying from 3 to 192, depending on the site. A short experiment with the SFH technique yielded higher Kfs values because a longer experiment with the PI probably promoted short-term swe…

Revisiting the Solid Flux Theory

2022

Several variations of the basic activated sludge process and of the related design procedures for final clarifiers have been developed, which are frequently based on the well-known solid flux theory (SFT). In this paper, by using the Lambert W function and a “virtual” solid flux corresponding to the Vesilind parameters’ ratio, the SFT is reformulated, and dimensionless groups are detected, which highly reduce the number of parameters that are involved in the final clarifiers’ design procedure. The derived dimensionless relationships and the corresponding plots have general validity since they can be applied to all the possible design/verification parameter combinatio…