Person:
Giménez Díaz, Rafael

Loading...
Profile Picture

Email Address

Birth Date

Research Projects

Organizational Units

Job Title

Last Name

Giménez Díaz

First Name

Rafael

person.page.departamento

Ingeniería

person.page.instituteName

IS-FOOD. Research Institute on Innovation & Sustainable Development in Food Chain

ORCID

0000-0003-3210-0578

person.page.upna

6698

Name

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • PublicationOpen Access
    Influence of surface roughness sample size for C-band SAR backscatter applications on agricultural soils
    (IEEE, 2017) Martínez de Aguirre Escobar, Alejandro; Álvarez Mozos, Jesús; Lievens, Hans; Verhoest, Niko E. C.; Giménez Díaz, Rafael; Landa Ingeniaritza eta Proiektuak; Institute on Innovation and Sustainable Development in Food Chain - ISFOOD; Proyectos e Ingeniería Rural
    Soil surface roughness determines the backscatter coefficient observed by radar sensors. The objective of this letter was to determine the surface roughness sample size required in synthetic aperture radar applications and to provide some guidelines on roughness characterization in agricultural soils for these applications. With this aim, a data set consisting of ten ENVISAT/ASAR observations acquired coinciding with soil moisture and surface roughness surveys has been processed. The analysis consisted of: 1) assessing the accuracies of roughness parameters s and l depending on the number of 1-m-long profiles measured per field; 2) computing the correlation of field average roughness parameters with backscatter observations; and 3) evaluating the goodness of fit of three widely used backscatter models, i.e., integral equation model (IEM), geometrical optics model (GOM), and Oh model. The results obtained illustrate a different behavior of the two roughness parameters. A minimum of 10-15 profiles can be considered sufficient for an accurate determination of s, while 20 profiles might still be not enough for accurately estimating l. The correlation analysis revealed a clear sensitivity of backscatter to surface roughness. For sample sizes >15 profiles, R values were as high as 0.6 for s and ~0.35 for l, while for smaller sample sizes R values dropped significantly. Similar results were obtained when applying the backscatter models, with enhanced model precision for larger sample sizes. However, IEM and GOM results were poorer than those obtained with the Oh model and more affected by lower sample sizes, probably due to larger uncertainly of l.
  • PublicationOpen Access
    Evaluation of surface roughness parameters in agricultural soils with different tillage conditions using a laser profile meter
    (Elsevier, 2016) Martínez de Aguirre Escobar, Alejandro; Álvarez Mozos, Jesús; Giménez Díaz, Rafael; Proyectos e Ingeniería Rural; Landa Ingeniaritza eta Proiektuak
    Surface roughness crucially affects the hydrological and erosive behaviours of soils. In agricultural areas surface roughness is directly related to tillage, whose action strongly affects the key physical properties of soils and determines the occurrence and fate of several processes (e.g., surface storage, infiltration, etc.). The characterisation of surface roughness as a result of tillage operations is not straightforward, and numerous parameters and indices have been proposed for quantifying it. In this article, a database of 164 profiles (each 5 m long), measured in 5 different roughness classes, was analysed. Four roughness classes corresponded to typical tillage operations (i.e., mouldboard, harrow, seedbed, etc.), and the fifth represented a seedbed soil that was subject to rainfall. The aim of the research was to evaluate and select the surface roughness parameters that best characterised and quantified the surface roughness caused by typical tillage operations. In total, 21 roughness parameters (divided into 4 categories) were assessed. The parameters that best separated and characterised the different roughness classes were the limiting elevation difference (LD) and the Mean Upslope Depression index (MUD); however, the parameters most sensitive to rainfall action on seedbed soils were limiting slope (LS) and the crossover lengths measured with the semivariogram method (lSMV) and the root mean square method (lRMS). Many parameters had high degrees of correlation with each other, and therefore gave almost identical information. The results of this study may contribute to the understanding of the surface roughness phenomenon and its parameterisation in agricultural soils.