Application of Soil Sensing Technology in Irrigated Agricultural Land

Dear colleagues,

The application of soil sensing technology in agriculture is becoming increasingly essential to meet the ever growing requirements associated with accurately estimating the spatiotemporal pattern of irrigation water needs and the related dynamic irrigation scheduling, as well as to improving land management, preserving soil and water, and contributing to balancing production and environmental quality. Real-time, sensor-based, and soil-water balance scheduling methods are key in the complex challenge of augmenting irrigation water use efficiency and water productivity while maintaining crop productivity and quality, and keeping environmental impacts low. Difficulties are enhanced by the increasing variability in edaphoclimatic factors in irrigated agriculture due to climate change, pressure on the resource (water), food demand and sustainability issues.

Overall, soil sensing can contribute to inform irrigated agriculture and to better deal with water consumption, crop quality, environmental quality and socio-economic sustainability issues at different scales: at the farm and field scales (proximal sensing) and at larger scales (remote sensing), which also enables the improvement of regional, continental, and global soil resource assessments. The support given by the monitoring and assessment of physical and bio-chemical soil attributes and condition, alongside with the understanding of environmental, irrigation, and crop evolution and production conditions is essential and demands combined effort and synergy from different specialization areas.

This Special Issue aims to collect research papers and reviews that take stock of the current status of technology, techniques, and modelling concepts that contribute to improve the monitoring of the soil condition and advance our current understanding of relevant processes and dynamics in irrigated agriculture. It constitutes an opportunity to gather studies and multidisciplinary approaches related to advanced soil sensing technologies and innovative methodologies for irrigation water management and soil conservation at different spatial and temporal scales, including those that combine proximal and remote sensing. Contributions reporting novel technological developments, theoretical, numerical, and field or laboratory experimental results, as well as engineering applications, are welcome.

Prof. Isabel Pedroso De Lima
Guest Editor

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