Articles | Volume 30, issue 10
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-2973-2026
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-2973-2026
Research article
 | 
19 May 2026
Research article |  | 19 May 2026

Interpretable soil moisture prediction with a knowledge-guided deep learning approach

Yanling Wang, Xiaolong Hu, Yaan Hu, Leilei He, Lijun Wang, Wenxiang Song, and Liangsheng Shi

Related authors

A comprehensive study of deep learning for soil moisture prediction
Yanling Wang, Liangsheng Shi, Yaan Hu, Xiaolong Hu, Wenxiang Song, and Lijun Wang
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 28, 917–943, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-917-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-917-2024, 2024
Short summary

Cited articles

Allen, R. G., Pereira, L. S., Raes, D., and Smith, M.: Crop evapotranspiration-Guidelines for computing crop water requirement, FAO Irrigation and drainage paper 56, Fao, Rome, 300, D05109, ISBN 92-5-104219-5, 1998. 
Bandai, T. and Ghezzehei, T. A.: Physics-Informed Neural Networks With Monotonicity Constraints for Richardson-Richards Equation: Estimation of Constitutive Relationships and Soil Water Flux Density From Volumetric Water Content Measurements, Water Resour. Res., 57, https://doi.org/10.1029/2020WR027642, 2021. 
De Bézenac, E., Pajot, A., and Gallinari, P.: Deep learning for physical processes: Incorporating prior scientific knowledge, 6th Int. Conf. Learn. Represent. ICLR 2018 – Conf. Track Proc., https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-5468/ab3195, 2018. 
Breiman, L.: Bagging predictors, Mach. Learn., 24, 123–140, 1996. 
Bronstein, M. M., Bruna, J., Lecun, Y., Szlam, A., and Vandergheynst, P.: Geometric Deep Learning: Going beyond Euclidean data, IEEE Signal Process. Mag., 34, 18–42, https://doi.org/10.1109/MSP.2017.2693418, 2017. 
Download
Short summary
This study introduces a new interpretable deep learning method that accurately predicts multi-depth soil moisture simultaneously without physical assumptions. The model provides insights into soil properties, while delivering precise predictions across diverse scenarios. Tested under various conditions, it outperforms traditional approaches, particularly when enhanced with basic physics. This tool can help improve water management by offering reliable and efficient soil moisture forecasts.
Share