On January 28, 2025, Suriya Elango will present his internship on “Effect of Semicircular Bunds for Soil moisture conservation in Ethiopia” at 12:00 in seminar room 3, John-Skilton-Str. 4a.
From the abstract:
This study assessed the impact of semi-circular soil bunds on soil moisture conservation in the semi-arid Desa forest region of Ethiopia. Implemented in 2020-2021, the bunds were evaluated against a control region using Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 data processed in Google Earth Engine (GEE). Analysis was conducted seasonally (Bega, Belg, Kiremt) corresponding to dry, medium, and high rainfall periods. Sentinel-1 GRD parameters, including VH/VV ratio, and Sentinel-2 derived indices (NDVI, GVMI, MSAVI, LSWI) were extracted. A novel approach integrating LSWI and EVI with the Water Cloud Model was employed to enhance soil moisture prediction. Random forest regression modeling yielded R² values of 0.2 for Sentinel-2 data, 0.48 for Sentinel-1 (VH/VV ratio being key), and 0.8 for fused data. Results indicate a significant increase in total water content within bunded fields since 2020, demonstrating the effectiveness of semi-circular bunds for improving soil moisture retention and potentially enhancing agricultural resilience in arid Ethiopian environments
Supervisor: Dr. Dhillon Maninder Singh
Hosting institution: Weforest.org
