I-Corps: Infrared Laser Absorption Spectroscopy for Soil Monitoring

University Of Arkansas, Fayetteville AR

Investigators

Abstract

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the adoption of a new standard for assessing the real-time condition of soil and geomaterials. The occurrence of extreme weather fluctuations and natural disasters have the potential to permanently disrupt modern society and agricultural practices by increasing soil erosion and decreasing usable land, soil fertility, and resistance to pests and disease. Growing populations will place more demand on agricultural production despite constrained amounts of available land. Technologies that assist with better nutrient management, planting, and harvesting techniques will aid in sustainable food production. Additionally, the need for better soil characterization and monitoring techniques are required in light of prominent failures of mine tailings dams. The safety of mining and large earth construction operations may be improved with the adoption of real-time, remote measurements of geomaterials. Lastly, more frequent and intense wildfires have led to more post-wildfire debris flows. Dangers associated with the debris flow potential must be identified and characterized. The optical, non-contact remote measurement technology that will be explored in this project has the potential to impact society as well as several markets and industries, ranging from precision agriculture to mining, hazard mitigation, and construction. This I-Corps project will explore the applications of optical infrared technology. The specific technology that will be explored was developed at the bench and field scale to remotely measure soil properties. The proposed innovation will advance agricultural and geotechnical engineering practices by enabling remote measurements of soil/crop condition and fertility, as well as static and dynamic soil parameters. Prior to the development of this technology, no method existed to remotely measure soil suction in the field. Because the measurements do not require contact with the soil, nor the collection of soil or water samples, the measurements are non-destructive. Furthermore, the rapidly collected measurements obtained will include many data points over a large area, improving spatial and temporal resolution over conventional point-wise data collection methods. The need to install labor-intensive and cost-prohibitive in situ instrumentation is then eliminated. The proposed technology also has the potential to save time and costs associated with conventional laboratory classification of soil properties and may also improve upon the poor reproducibility of some conventional testing methods. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.