Articles | Volume 19, issue 8
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-19-3505-2015
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-19-3505-2015
Research article
 | 
10 Aug 2015
Research article |  | 10 Aug 2015

Qualitative soil moisture assessment in semi-arid Africa – the role of experience and training on inter-rater reliability

M. Rinderer, H. C. Komakech, D. Müller, G. L. B. Wiesenberg, and J. Seibert

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Interactive discussion

Status: closed
Status: closed
AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment
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Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision
ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (Editor review) (02 Jul 2015) by Wolfgang Wagner
AR by Michael Rinderer on behalf of the Authors (05 Jul 2015)  Author's response    Manuscript
ED: Publish as is (20 Jul 2015) by Wolfgang Wagner
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Short summary
A field method for assessing soil moisture in semi-arid conditions is proposed and tested in terms of inter-rater reliability with 40 Tanzanian farmers, students and experts. The seven wetness classes are based on qualitative indicators that one can see, feel or hear. It could be shown that the qualitative wetness classes reflect differences in volumetric water content and neither experience nor a certain level of education was a prerequisite to gain high agreement among raters.