Copyright J.Ahmed 2020
I work on two distinct components within the THYME Project that focus around understanding how improvements to land management and soil health may be essential in enhancing societal resilience to future climate change. The two projects are closely related and complementary, but have distinct objectives that seek to address this question of resilience. The two projects fit within a larger project that aims to improve the sustainability of farming in the Humber region, and more widely, across the UK
Both projects will employ a range of sensing techniques using a combination of UAV photogrammetry, in-situ sensors, mobile sensors, and soil nutrient analytics.
Improving soil quality to enhance environmental and societal resilience to climate change (ISEECC)
This project seeks to understand how the physical structure of the soil changes when treated with the introduction of cover crops during the spring and winter crops and how soil moisture retention may be affected. The project will be using novel high-resolution scanning techniques to evaluate changes in soil structure, while a range of sensors will provide moisture readings at different spatial and temporal scales.
Strengthening environmental resilience through sustainable soil management strategies (StReSS)
StReSS seeks to characterise changes in soil nutrient concentration and soil moisture in both space and time. This will be accomplished using a range of sensing equipment and supplemented with core extraction and analysis. We will be monitoring how these patterns vary between zones treated with cover crops and those that remain under 'business as usual' conditions. StReSS will also reconcile field measurements with numerical modelling to try to understand how changes in soil moisture retention may influence groundwater flow dynamics and ultimately affect the routing of water through the catchment, with specific implications for flood risk mitigation.