Application of a soil water balance model to historical soil moisture estimation over eastern Nebraska

Soil water plays a crucial role in determining crop yield. Inter-annual variability in precipitation and resultant variations in soil moisture may significantly affect crop productivity and increase uncertainty. This uncertainty can be reduced by estimating and building a historical soil moisture data base which can be used further to determine spatial and temporal variations of soil moisture at a much higher resolution and accuracy. The present study reports applications of a soil moisture estimation model for a number of selected sites where daily soil water content is currently recorded by Automated Weather Data Network (AWDN). These applications will show sensitivity of this soil water model under various crops and soil characteristics. Furthermore, this model is applied to estimate historical soil moisture by using available AWDN data at these sites.