1. Evaluation of Ground-Penetrating Radar-Derived Soil Moisture Contents for Use with Unsaturated Numerical Flow Models Eric Harmsen Hamed Parsiani

2. Project Goal To compare numerical models of variably saturated flow developed from traditional point-measured moisture content data and GPR-derived moisture content data.

3. Experimental Layout

4. Specifics Objectives Conduct a field study (Year-1) to obtain shallow (1 meter) GPR measurements at various locations where the vertical moisture content distribution is know with high accuracy [obtained from time domain reflectometry (TDR) measurements] The TDR data will be used to calibrate the GPR transformation model. Develop and calibrate numerical unsaturated flow models using the point-measured moisture data and spatially continuous GPR moisture data. Conduct a field study (Year-2) to validate the GPR method for estimating soil moisture content.

5. Specific Objectives – Cont. Perform a statistical comparison analysis of the TDR and GPR moisture data obtained from the year-2 field study. Using the calibrated numerical flow models, predict water movement for the year-2 field conditions. Perform a comparison analysis of the two numerical flow models for the year-2 field conditions Disseminate information in professional journals (2 papers per year).