A new soil-moisture based classification of raindays and drydays and its application to Sierra Leone |
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| Authors: | S I Kamara I J Jackson |
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| Institution: | (1) Department of Geography and Planning, University of New England, Australia;(2) Department of Geography, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong |
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| Abstract: | Summary The paper proposes a new classification of raindays and drydays incorporating soil moisture status. This is of particular value for agricultural purposes and also allows the adoption of a low rainfall threshold to distinguish between raindays and drydays. This is important since, as indicated in the paper, small falls may be important and yet in the tropics, for agricultural purposes, a high threshold is often adopted to take account of the high evaporative demand of the atmosphere. Soil moisture is expressed as a percentage of available soil moisture storage capacity (SMSC) and conditions are described as deficit, limiting, adequate, and surplus, if soil moisture levels are 0–29%, 30–59%, 60–100% and > 100% of SMSC respectively. Combining this with rainday and dryday occurrence, three types of drydays and four types of raindays are identified. This rain-soil moisture index classification more nearly approaches a universal definition suitable for different tropical regions than previous ones. Application of the concept is illustrated with data from Sierra Leone, using a simple water balance model to estimate soil moisture.With 7 Figures |
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