Assessment of Soil Moisture Status Using Mid and Thermal Infrared Bands Case Study: Wadi Hassib, Khartoum State, Sudan

Abstract

Soil moisture is the key factor that controls plant biological processes and indicates the environmental status.  Recently, the application of remote sensing techniques in soil moisture monitoring has been widely used. In this study soil moisture was monitored during pre-autumn in March, autumn in September and post-autumn in December (2002), in order to identify the signature of different types of moist soils, which can be useful to interpret images. Supervised classification technique was adopted to determine the dominant land use/land cover classes in the area so that they can be vital indicators for the area and its suitability for many life styles. Monitoring moisture statuses can be used for general evaluation of land suitability for agriculture. The assessment of moisture statuses was performed in landsat ETM+ images using band 5 (MIR) as it is known as a sensitive band for moisture status and band 6 (Thermal) as a sensitive band to temperature variation as indicator of moisture status. The study revealed that band 5 and band 6 can be used to monitor soil moisture status during the different seasons in semi-arid areas, however, band 6 is less sensitive to variations in moisture. Therefore, this study recommends the use of Band 5 for monitoring soil moisture in semi-arid regions, and does not recommend the use of band 6 alone but with some supporting bands.