Multidimensional Tool for the Visualization of Spatiotemporal Variance in Soil Moisture

Abstract

<p>With water a precious resource, it is important to understand factors affecting soil moisture. Current research focuses on understanding this relationship; unfortunately these methods are specialized in their applications or overwhelm the user with information making correlations difficult to comprehend. Often, numerical results provide understanding of prominent correlations but miss subtle relationships, hindering subsequent decisions. This project aims to develop a decision making tool combining numerical analysis with visualization techniques to provide the user with the information to analyze soil moisture’s spatial and temporal variability. Current work has shown that self-organizing maps are effective for displaying comprehendible relationships to the user.</p>