Soil Science Society of America Journal · 1992 · 205 citations · 0 references
AgricultureEarth SciencesSoil SciencesSoil GeographySoil PhysicsSoil ScienceSoil MicromorphologySoil TextureSurface MetrologySurface RoughnessFractal RoughnessMicrotopographyRoughnessRoughness LengthSurface Roughness AnalysisSurface Roughness LengthSurface Roughness MeasurementSurface Roughness Modeling
Soil surface microtopography controls transport processes, and its influence depends on scale; conventional roughness metrics are limited, and potential applications of scale‑aware quantification were discussed. The study aims to express soil surface roughness at multiple scales using a variogram plotted on a log‑log scale. Surface topography was measured with a laser scanner at 0.5‑mm grid spacing and analyzed using a log‑log variogram to capture roughness across scales. The data demonstrate that soil roughness can be quantified across scales by combining fractal and Markov‑Gaussian processes.
Abstract Many transport processes on or across the soil surface boundary are controlled by surface microtopography, or roughness. How roughness affects the transport process depends on the length scale of the process. The most commonly used method of expressing soil surface roughness, the roughness length or random roughness, is contrained by the measurement technique and does not embody the concept of scale. The structural function, or variogram, plotted on a log‐log scale was used in this study to express the surface roughness at different scales. With the aid of a laser scanner, surface topography was measured down to 0.5‐mm grid spacing. Data collected from a variety of surface conditions showed that soil roughness can be quantified by a combination of fractal and Markov‐Gaussian processes at different scales. Potential applications of the roughness quantification were also discussed.