@InProceedings{ZeriAlCaCuCoUrMa:2019:MoSoMo,
author = "Zeri, Marcelo and Alval{\'a}, Regina C{\'e}lia S. and Carneiro,
Rog{\'e}rio and Cunha-Zeri, Gisleine da Silva and Costa,
Jos{\'e} Maria and Urbano, Domingos and Marengo, Jos{\'e}",
affiliation = "{Centro Nacional de Monitoramento e Alertas de Desastres Naturais
(CEMADEN)} and {Centro Nacional de Monitoramento e Alertas de
Desastres Naturais (CEMADEN)} and {Centro Nacional de
Monitoramento e Alertas de Desastres Naturais (CEMADEN)} and
{Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE)} and {Centro
Nacional de Monitoramento e Alertas de Desastres Naturais
(CEMADEN)} and {Centro Nacional de Monitoramento e Alertas de
Desastres Naturais (CEMADEN)} and {Centro Nacional de
Monitoramento e Alertas de Desastres Naturais (CEMADEN)}",
title = "Monitoring of soil moisture for drought risk assessment over the
Brazilian semiarid region",
year = "2019",
organization = "EGU General Assembly",
abstract = "Soil moisture is being monitored over the Brazilian semiarid since
2014 using a network of 595 stations. The network was implemented
by Cemaden, the National Center for Monitoring and Early Warning
of Natural Disasters, with the objective of monitoring of spatial
and temporal patterns of soil water and potential impacts on the
regions agriculture activities. The Brazilian semiarid is the
poorest in the country and hosts most of the family owned farms in
Brazil. Crops such as maize and beans are mostly planted over
small properties with no irrigation. In this work, agricultural
risk is assessed using measurements of soil moisture which are
presented in formats that highlight spatial, temporal and
short-term variability. The Soil Moisture Index (SMI), based on a
normalization of soil moisture by field capacity and wilting
point, is used to characterize the current soil moisture
conditions in a scale proportional to the water available to
plants. The temporal evolution of SMI is used to visualize trends
in short-term drought and response to rainfall events at daily
time steps or recent weeks. A novel index based on continuous
exposure to critical SMI is developed to help bring awareness of
real time risk of water stress over the region: the Index of
Stress in Agriculture (ISA). The index takes into account
continuous exposure to a critical value of SMI (assumed as 0.4),
below which water stress is expected to be triggered in plants.
The index was tested during a short-term drought over the region
and successfully identified locations under water stress for
periods of three days or more. The monitoring tools presented here
help to describe the real time conditions of drought over the
region using daily observations. These tools are expected to be
implemented over an online platform hosted at Cemadens website.",
conference-location = "Vienna, Austria",
conference-year = "07-12 apr.",
language = "en",
targetfile = "EGU2019-2636.pdf",
urlaccessdate = "01 jun. 2024"
}