Soil moisture content looking at the surface? in landmine country!

[Alan Robock]

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From: Alan Robock <robock@envsci.rutgers.edu>
To: Paul.I.Andrews@Fluor.com
cc: sowacs@aqua.ccwr.ac.za
Subject: Re: Soil moisture content

Dear Mr. Andrews,

I think this is a very difficult problem, and have no solution for
you.  I have forwarded your question to the sowacs listserv group and
hope someone else can help you.

Alan Robock

Professor Alan Robock
  Editor, JGR - Atmospheres
  Director, Center for Environmental Prediction
Department of Environmental Sciences              Phone: +1-732-932-9478
Rutgers University                                  Fax: +1-732-932-8644
14 College Farm Road                   E-mail: robock@envsci.rutgers.edu
New Brunswick, NJ 08901-8551  USA      http://envsci.rutgers.edu/~robock


On Tue, 14 Aug 2001 Paul.I.Andrews@Fluor.com wrote:

> Dear Sir
> 
> Facing a dilemma I searched the internet and found your site. Can you help?
> 
> I am looking at a pipeline project in Mozambique where the pipeline is
> buried in wet soils to a depth at the bottom of the pipe of 2 meters. The
> pipe is of a diameter that would be buoyancy in the soil if it contained
> water. On a normal project we obtain data on the water table using piezo
> tubes or similar. In this case we cannot gain access to undertake the
> design at this time as much of the country is mined form an old time war.
> Once we clear the mines placement of the tubes would be possible but the
> validity of the data for such a short period would be highly questionable.
> The question therefore is to establish if a method of assessing the worst
> possible ground water content from visual inspection or testing of the
> ground is possible?  Even after the level of moisture may have reduced due
> to drying.
> 
> i was told that signs of areas where moisture prevails for much of the time
> can be seen by looking at the soil profile.
> 
> Could you point me in the correct path to a solution for this problem
> 
> Best Regards
> 
> Paul Andrews
> 
>