A method for estimating the spatial distribution of soil moisture of arid microenvironments by close range thermal infrared imaging

The topsoil moisture content, its spatial distribution and dynamics, are important variables in understanding the response of arid eco-geomorphic hill slope systems to rainfall. This study presents a method of measuring the soil moisture within a shrub's microenvironment by employing thermal infrared (TIR) imaging. A model for converting soil moisture (SMCM) is based on multi-temporal TIR images. The method incorporates data from in situ measurements of soil temperature, moisture content and local meteorological variables collected simultaneously with TIR imaging. The results obtained, together with the high spatial resolution of the TIR images, demonstrated the efficacy of this method for mapping soil moisture on micro-scale and also the potential for spatial analysis and change detection over time.