Characterisation of soil profile roughness

By using a laser profiler, the surface height variation trace of three types of tillage soil profiles, that is ploughed, harrowed and rolled surface, are obtained. In order to acquire the different direction profiles of every tillage type, the profiles at 0 (parallel), 45 and 90 (perpendicular) degrees with respect to the tillage direction are measured. Using this data the range of root mean square (rms) height and correlation values associated with each agricultural roughness state is estimated. The agricultural soil profile is simulated by using random fractal model. The results show that at spatial scales, agricultural surface roughness characterisation are well described by the superposition of a single-scale process related to the tillage state with a multi-scale random fractal process related to field topography. (c) 2005 Silsoe Research Institute. All rights reserved Published by Elsevier Ltd.