Soil hydrophysical characteristics in the Nitra river basin (Slovakia): Their monitoring, analysis, online publishing

Abstract

The paper is focused on the purpose made, or local monitoring of areal unit of the Nitra river basin (Slovakia, Central EU with total area 4501 km²) in order to obtain the inputs on soil, moisture and hydrophysical characteristics of the given area. In this study, there was evaluated the share of individual soil texture classes in the Nitra river basin on the basis of map records and its comparison with the soil samples taken from the 111 selected sites. Soil samples were taken from two depths of soil profile (15-20 cm, 40-45 cm). The sites were chosen according to the percentage representation of individual soil texture classes. Based on the identification of sampling points localization and following analysis of granularity ratio, it can be concluded that the grain composition from the soil samplings does not correspond fully with the map records. Subsequently, drainage branches of moisture retention curves were measured for all sites Obtained hydrophysical data were enabled on the web-portal. With the use of OpenGeo Suite software, version 4.0.2 and its components Geoserver and Geoexplorer, the data on soil characteristics were published online at:

http://fzki.uniag.sk/02FacultyStructure/02Departments/KBH/02Research/Hydrophysics.Thus, information about the soil characteristics in the basin is available to specialists.  

Keywords

• the Nitra River Basin
• hydrophysical
• chararacteristics

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