2015 Volume 131 Pages 5-13
The effectiveness of information and communi-cation technology (ICT) monitoring, which links real time field images with soil and environmental data, was evalu-ated by a case study in a cold upland cabbage field. Soil and weather conditions were measured with the ICT mon-itoring system in order to understand the water cycle at the cold upland cabbage field. A fieldserver and soil sen-sors (ECH2O-TE, Decagon Devices) were installed at the cabbage field to measure weather condition, soil temper-ature, soil moisture, and soil electrical conductivity (EC). Soil moisture at the cabbage field was close to saturation during the cultivation season. Possible reasons for the wet soil conditions are that a hardpan with a small saturated hydraulic conductivity exists at depths of 40–45 cm, and the precipitation rate was much larger than the evapotran-spiration rate at the cabbage field. The soil EC revealed that soil solute transfer clearly followed the precipitation pattern. Soil temperature and soil moisture during the win-ter season showed different diurnal variations depending on snow cover and its melting. The real time field im-ages linked with the soil and weather data provided a more complete description of conditions than could be captured with only soil and weather observations. The ICT mon-itoring of soil properties and weather conditions was an effective tool for enhancing the understanding of field con-ditions through the use of real-time field images.
