Summary of 2018 MOISST Workshop

Stevens recently sponsored the 2018 MOISST Workshop: From Soil Moisture Observations to Actionable Decisions, which was held June 4-7 in Lincoln, Nebraska.

This workshop provided a unique opportunity for leaders in soil moisture research and development to come together in an interactive workshop format to exchange ideas and develop collaborations. This was the eighth consecutive year for the workshop, which is an initiative of the community of researchers that has developed from the Marena, Oklahoma, In Situ Sensor Testbed (MOISST). This year’s workshop was hosted by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and included a special session on the National Drought Mitigation Center (NDMC) and the National Soil Moisture Network (NSMN), an ongoing initiative to develop a national system that integrates diverse sources of soil moisture observations including federal and state in-situ monitoring networks, satellite remote sensing missions, and numerical models.

Workshop Goals:

  • Provide a highly focused venue for presenting cutting-edge research and new concepts related to soil moisture monitoring.
  • Highlight new applications of soil moisture data and identify application-oriented research needs.
  • Stimulate progress towards realizing the vision of the National Soil Moisture Network.

Over 100 people from federal, state, university, non-governmental, and industry gathered for the workshop. The workshop contained a student poster competition with over 20 entries. Stevens Water Monitoring Systems, Inc. provided prizes of $150, $100, and $50 to the top three posters. The winning posters were:

1st place: Pedro Rossini, Kansas State University, “Spatio-temporal analysis of Soil Moisture Using a Roving Cosmic-ray Neutron Probe”. Download PDF of the poster.

2nd place: Destiny Kerr, Oklahoma State University, “Improving Soil Organic Carbon Predictions by Incorporating Long- term Soil Moisture and Soil Temperature Observations”. Download PDF of the poster.

3rd place: Justin Gibson, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, “Spatial prediction of near surface soil water retention functions using hydrogeophysics”. Download PDF of the poster.

More details about the workshop and a link to oral presentations can be found on the workshop webpage http://snr.unl.edu/research/projects/MOISST/workshop2018.asp.

Workshop funding was also provided by the NDMC through USDA’s Office of the Chief Economist Federal Award Identification:  58-0111-17-013.

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