Working Towards Soil Moisture Monitoring in Canada:

An AAFC – EC Plan J. Fitzmaurice3, A. Howard1 and G. Brunet2

March , 2009Oak Ridge, Tennessee

1 Manager, National Agroclimate Information Service, Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada; Regina, Saskatchewan2Research Director,Meteorological Research Division , Environment Canada, Dorval, Quebec 3Senior Soil Resource Specialist, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Winnipeg, Manitoba

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Benefits of Improved Soil Moisture Information

Producers:

Improved understanding and prediction of soil moisture would allow producers to:– manage better during period

of excess and insufficient moisture;

– improve yield predictions– minimize on-farm

environmental risk (e.g., when to spread manure)

D. Lapen, Research Branch, AAFC 2008

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Benefits of Improved Soil Moisture Information

• Federal and Provincial programs: – Improved predictions would reduce disaster payouts

• ~ 5.8 billion loss to Canada incurred in the 2001-2002 drought. If planning-monitoring-adaptation programs reduced loss by even <1%, $ 10’s of millions could be saved.

• Cover Crop Protection Pgm. (CCPP) costs > $100M; a reduction in affected acreage by 10% would have saved $3.5 Million in 2005 alone

– Impact on competitiveness• Money saved by reduced disaster relief costs is money available for options

to improve the sector’s competitiveness

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Benefits of Improved Soil Moisture Information

Early warning of extreme weather events• Flood and runoff warnings

– Enhance human safety– Reduce risk of water contamination

• Human health warnings– Risk of radon entering residential basements– Poor air quality due to low-level atmospheric mixing

• Forestry– Enhanced forest fire risk assessment

Water Resources• Water availability

– consistent with emerging recommendations for the Deputy Ministers’ Committee on Economic Prosperity, the Environment and Energy from interdepartmental working group to better understand and predict water availability

Value of Improved Weather Forecasting

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Where did it start?

Towards a Federal Earth Observation Strategy for Canada (2006)• Developed by EC, AAFC, NRCan, CSA, DFO, HC, DFAIT as participants in

the Canadian Group on Earth Observation (CGEO)

• A better understanding of the water cycle is a priority for Canada – Increased economic development and population growth will put increasing

demand on Canada’s land and water resources.– Climate change is adding uncertainty as to how droughts, floods and other

extreme events will impact the sustainability of our environment, our economic competitiveness and our public health and safety

– Our ability to better predict climate variability and improve our forecasting of extreme events will be critical in our ability to maintain competitiveness in all economic sectors.

• Soil Moisture was determined to be a key component in improving our understanding of the water cycle

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Where did it start?

• Identified improved soil moisture monitoring as key priority in understanding the water cycle:– Current monitoring in Canada is ad hoc and uncoordinated

between regions and agencies. Need for national consistency.

– New opportunities to harness emerging technologies to improve data

– Opportunity to work with US to build a continental system

• Establish a working group on soil moisture

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Soil Moisture Working Group

• Established working group on soil moisture under CGEO – Purpose is to work toward a better understanding of Soil

moisture in Canada• 2 major outputs from this group

– Soil Moisture Monitoring Workshop May 2007– Develop Way Forward document (May 2008) and work plan

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Soil Moisture Monitoring Workshop

• Held in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan May, 2007– Purpose : The main objectives of the workshop was to provide

information and input into drafting a path forward to address the needs for soil moisture monitoring , analysis and prediction information in Canadian agricultural landscapes..

– organized under the umbrella of the interdepartmental Canadian Group on Earth Observations (CGEO), in close collaboration with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and Environment Canada.

• 4 main topic areas– In Situ Monitoring, Remote Sensing, Modelling and Data Assimilation,

User Services and Applications– Break out groups for each area

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Soil Moisture Monitoring Workshop

• Short Term Goals (< 2 years)– In-Situ Monitoring:

• Form working group(s) for sensor selection/defining standards, for quality control and calibration, for network design, and for data assimilation

• Network design manual of procedures • Write operating procedures• Define data standards• Determine locations for test bed facilities• Ensure sustainability of existing networks (Quebec has funds ending soon)• Plan workshop for quality control of data and assimilation of existing data• Identify partners and user requirements

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Soil Moisture Monitoring Workshop

• Short Term Goals (< 2years)– Remote Sensing

• Generate inventory of existing data• Execute formal partnership agreements• Obtain access to existing L band SAR data (ALOS PALSAR)• Find resources to work with SMOS data, initially for calibration and validation• Form partnerships in SMAP mission • Improve understanding of relationship between point observations and pixel

scale observations

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Soil Moisture Monitoring Workshop

• Short Term Goals (< 2years)– Modeling and Data Assimilation

• Execute agreements to access near-real time data on soil moisture and precipitation

• Gain access to existing land cover and soil texture data sets• Write model documentation• Improve assimilation of existing remotely-sensed data• Participate in new satellite planning• Research on the inclusion of remote-sensing data in a Canadian LDAS

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Soil Moisture Monitoring Workshop

• Short Term Goals (< 2years)– User Services and Applications

• Plan follow-up workshop(s) for users – include more provincial representatives

• Identify users and their needs/applications • Identify and manage data standards• Establish formal linkages to GEO tasks and committees

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Soil Moisture Monitoring Workshop

• Medium Term Goals ( 2-4years)– In-Situ Monitoring

• Create web portal for soil moisture data and community – need champion• Develop data QA/QC process• Execute land and data sharing agreements for monitoring network locations• Implement test beds

– Remote Sensing• Find resources to better characterize land surface parameters• Form working group on data validation• Improve transfer (or observation) models used in LDAS for the assimilation of

remote-sensing data

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Soil Moisture Monitoring Workshop

• Medium Term Goals ( 2-4years)– Modeling and Data Assimilation

• Improve existing in situ and remote sensing networks/datasets• Implement near real time vegetation analysis• Implement remote sensing data in LDAS• Execute operational access agreements to near real time data soil moisture

and precipitation• Speed up movement from research to operation

– User Services and Applications• Develop algorithms and tools to generate useful information through aclient

committee (user researcher interface)• Form community of practice

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Soil Moisture Monitoring Workshop

• Long Term Goals (> 4years)– In-Situ Monitoring

• Oversee network implementation• Review/re-evaluate sensors and test beds• Maintain equipment (life cycle management)• Update standards • Perform site maintenance• Perform ISO audits• Manage metadata• Install new key monitoring networks

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Soil Moisture Monitoring Workshop

• Long Term Goals (> 4years)– Remote Sensing

• Better understand plant-soil interactions• Create experimental watersheds (calibrated basins or super sites) for validation and

calibration of sensors• Establish procedures for extending surface data (from satellites) to soil profile/depth

information from sensors/modeling

– Modeling and Data Assimilation• Improve models through collaboration with Universities and researchers• Improve topographic input, using LiDAR Digital Elevation Model (DEM)• Ensure coverage / representative-ness of data is appropriate• Soil moisture modelling and assimilation at smaller scales (towards field scale)• Probabilistic soil moisture products using ensemble techniques

– User Services and Applications• Develop capability to deliver daily profiles of soil moisture at high spatial resolution (~km)

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Next Steps…

• Presently waiting for approval to develop a joint AAFC-EC plan to improve soil moisture monitoring in Canada over the next six months

• This plan will:– Provide a National Vision– Link soil moisture monitoring to EC and AAFC priorities and

current and emerging initiatives– Identify key activities over next 6 months

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National Vision

A user focused system that:• Has clearly demonstrated value to Canada• Links in-situ, remote sensing, modeling and data assimilation• Has multiple spatial scales that will be useful from the farm up to

regional scale.• It has multiple time scales that allow hourly to multi-seasonal

predictions • freely available to all users

Start smallA few select pilot projects are being considered- a contribution to Gt. Lakes – St Lawrence Basin Pilot on

Environmental Prediction- agriculture productivity/water efficiency pilot in the Prairies

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Linkages between SMM and Current/Emerging Initiatives

Environment CanadaEnvironmental Prediction• Weather

– Better understand and predict severe storm events, especially hail and damaging winds

• Water: – Better understanding of the risk of contaminant movement into Canada’s

water system, – the demand on Canada’s water system from increased user demand and

climate variability

• Climate Change: – Better understanding and prediction of ecosystem risks from changes in

climate variability associated with climate changes

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Linkages between SMM and Current/Emerging Initiatives

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

Growing Forward• to enable enterprises to adapt to risks posed by environmental factors (climate

change, drought, etc.) and safeguard the future viability of their land and water base

– Linkage with Crop Insurance and Federal Programs (e.g. AgriRecovery…):• Improved data and science to support identification of targeted areas target program delivery• Improved forecasting of risk – improved preparedness, quicker response

• facilitate the sector’s contribution to addressing environmental priorities– Water Quantity: contribute to more responsible use of water through better irrigation

management– Water Quality: contribute to cleaner water through improved management practices

(timing of manure application and tillage practices, pesticide applications, erosion control)

Branch business line: – Agri-Environmental Knowledge and Decision Support

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Identify key activities over next 6 months

• Establish small steering committee with key CGEO partners co-chaired by EC and AAFC

• Engage partners to identify needs and align capacity for collaboration– Provinces, Academia, US agencies, Federal agencies: – Identify key research, monitoring and capacity gaps

• Establish inter-agency work plan • Plan for Next 6 – 18 months

• Establish pilot project to test proof of concept• Calibrate against international work and expert review• Develop system growth plan

Contributors

AAFCHeather McNairnJohn Fitzmaurice

Eric GauthierCatherine Champagne

Andy DavidsonAston Chipanshi

Sarah KalffAllan Howard

Ian Jarvis

ECGilbert Brunet

Charles LinKen KorporalJessika Toyra

Stephane BelairKerri Swail

Rick Lawford, Drought Research Initiative

Richard Dobbins, Statistics Canada