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@INPROCEEDINGS{Belleflamme:1046905,
author = {Belleflamme, Alexandre and Hammoudeh, Suad and Görgen,
Klaus and Nieberding, Felix and Bogena, Heye and Ney,
Patrizia and Kollet, Stefan},
title = {{E}valuation of predicted soil moisture with the
hydrological model {P}ar{F}low/{CLM} against {CRNS} and
{S}oil{N}et sensors in {N}orth-{R}hine {W}estphalia,
{G}ermany},
reportid = {FZJ-2025-03986},
year = {2025},
abstract = {Recent years, alternating between droughts and extreme
precipitation events, have highlighted the need for both,
improved monitoring and accurate predictions of the
terrestrial water cycle. In particular, the impacts of dry
and wet extremes on subsurface water resources (e.g., soil
moisture, groundwater) are crucial to assess the impacts of
water scarcity and excess on ecosystem dynamics as well as
to provide stakeholders in agriculture, forestry, the water
sector, and other fields with information supporting the
sustainable use of these resources.In this context, the
ADAPTER (ADAPt TERrestrial Systems) project, which dealt
with the development and provisioning of innovative
simulation-based data and information products, initiated
the installation of 13 hydrometeorological monitoring
stations, 12 of which are located on or at the margins of
agricultural fields, and one on grassland. In addition to a
meteorological station measuring the usual meteorological
parameters (air temperature and humidity, wind speed and
direction, atmospheric pressure, solar radiation, and
precipitation), we installed SoilNet sensors that measure
soil moisture and temperature at four depths (5, 15, 30, and
60cm, with two sensors per depth), and a Cosmic Ray Neutron
Sensor (CRNS) to measure soil moisture at the field
scale.The continuous automated measurements are accompanied
by a free-running monitoring and forecasting system using
the integrated hydrological model ParFlow/CLM to predict the
terrestrial water cycle over hydrologic Germany. In this
setup, ParFlow/CLM simulates the 2D surface and 3D variably
saturated subsurface water states and fluxes at high spatial
resolution (0.6km) down to 60m depth with weather forecasts
from ECMWF (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather
Forecasts) as atmospheric forcing. These simulations have
already been evaluated on a monthly basis with
satellite-based soil moisture and evapotranspiration, and
in-situ observations for groundwater table depth and
streamflow discharge (doi: 10.3389/frwa.2023.1183642).
However, their accuracy has never been assessed in a
comparison with in-situ soil moisture measurements and on a
daily basis at a very local, stakeholder-relevant
scale.During the observation period several extreme
hydrometeorological events happened, e.g., the extreme
precipitation event in mid-July 2021, the drought in summer
2022, the flash drought in June 2023, the exceptionally
rainy year 2024, and the dry winter and spring 2025. Here we
evaluate the ability of our ParFlow/CLM simulations to
reproduce soil moisture measured at our stations, both at
point scale at different depths with the SoilNet sensors and
integrated over a larger area (radius of ~200m) and around
20cm depth with the CRNS.The results show that uncalibrated
ParFlow/CLM is able to reproduce the evolution and temporal
dynamics of the soil moisture over time. The model’s
accuracy to reproduce the drying and rewetting of the soil
depends, amongst others, on the soil texture and vegetation
properties, which are represented in a simplified manner in
the simulation setup.},
month = {Sep},
date = {2025-09-29},
organization = {3rd OZCAR-TERENO Conference, Paris
(France), 29 Sep 2025 - 2 Oct 2025},
subtyp = {After Call},
cin = {IBG-3},
cid = {I:(DE-Juel1)IBG-3-20101118},
pnm = {2173 - Agro-biogeosystems: controls, feedbacks and impact
(POF4-217)},
pid = {G:(DE-HGF)POF4-2173},
typ = {PUB:(DE-HGF)24},
url = {https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/1046905},
}