Simulated Soil Water content Issue in EPIC v.1102

[Janani Kandasamy]

Dear All,

I am working on a vineyard site at Italy and have ground meteorological data from 2022 to 2024. While simulating soil water content, I noticed very little variation during winter and early spring (December to April), with significant deviations from our measured values.

To address this, I performed a spin-up by extending the meteorological dataset back to 2019 using available input data (2019–2024). However, the issue persists, and now the soil moisture values remain nearly constant from October to April.

Could you suggest how to resolve this issue?

Best regards,
Janani

[Luca Doro]

Dear Jenani,

First of all, I would check if the precipitation input data is used correctly by the model. You can check several output files to see if some precipitation is simulated or not. If the precipitation is correctly simulated, check the soil file to be sure the input data are correct.

If everything looks fine, start looking at the evapotranspiration first to see if the simulated values are reasonable compared to the simulated area. Another thing you can check is the runoff. A too high runoff might indicate that little water is percolating through the soil profile.

Luca