The interest in techniques to improve water use efficiency (WUE) such as controlled deficit irrigation is rising due to the emergence of strong competition for fresh water in order to comply with the increased demand for food worldwide. Additionally, the use of crop models in conjunction with complex decision support systems becomes more and more widespread making it essential to reliably predi...

Soil moisture monitoring and the characterization of the spatial and temporal variability of this hydrologic parameter at scales from small catchments to large river basins continues to receive much attention, reflecting its critical role in subsurface – land surface – atmosphere interactions and its importance to drought analysis, crop yield forecasting, irrigation planning, flood protection, ...