The Hydropedograph Toolbox and its application

Abstract. The Hydropedograph Toolbox has been developed to provide a set of standardized tools for analyzing soil moisture time series in an efficient and consistent manner. This toolbox contains various modules that permit the exploration and visualization of key soil hydrological parameters and processes using multi-depth real-time soil moisture monitoring datasets. This includes statistical summary, soil water release curve, preferential flow occurrence, hydraulic redistribution, and the relationship between soil moisture and soil temperature. After describing this toolbox, this paper demonstrates the utility of this toolbox in a case study from the Shale Hills Critical Zone Observatory in USA. The case study illustrates the topographic impacts on soil moisture dynamics along a hillslope transect, and quantifies the frequency of the occurrence of preferential flow, diel fluxes of water, and seasonal storage dynamics. It is expected that such a toolbox, with continued enhancements in the future and wide applications across diverse landscapes, can facilitate the advancement of comparative hydrology and hydropedology.