Selhausen pilot site is locate in agricultural rural area in the western part of Germany. Main crops on this site are sugar beet, winter beet and winter barley.
At this pilot site Forschungszentrum JULICH is testing Integrated physically based terrestrial system models. Idea behind this activity is to implement Data Assimilation Framework which will allow best possible prediction of soil water content for the next fourteen days for the specific plot with a specific crop on it.
Selhausen pilot site is ideal for testing Integrated physically based terrestrial system models because at this pilot site measurements of the meteorological, hydrological and geological variables have been conducted for the past eleven years. Therefore, data collected can be used as a direct parameters of the model tested.
From the investigations at the Selhausen pilot site, farmers could benefit from daily predictions which can be support for long-term decision making in agricultural operations. In addition, codes that Forschungszentrum JULICH are producing will be open-source and could be used by agencies or consultancies in order to replicate developed method on other sites with their own data for their own predictions.
