SoilW

SoilW (Soil Water model library) is a software component implementing different approaches for soil water simulation. Main processes simulated are:
- water redistribution along (cascading (tipping-bucket), cascading with travel time, finite difference solution of the Richards equation),
- water uptake (Ceres, EPIC and CropSyst-Campbell approaches),
- water retention (van Genuchten, Campbell methods),
- evaporation (Ritchie, CropSyst approaches),
- water table contribution (Liu method),
- tillage effect on soil physical properties (from Macro, Wepp and Epic models).
Models are available as pre-defined composite objects (e.g., soil water model according to the Epic model); however, users have the possibility to build their own soil water models by composing approaches for the different processes according, e.g., to data availability.

SoilW does not implement approaches for canopy interception, infiltration and runoff, that are available in a dedicated component (SoilRE).

The component is distributed free of charge for non-commercial purposes with a dedicated software development kit (SDK), and can be used by modellers and developers in their own applications. SDK includes documentation of code and algorithms, as well as sample projects showing how to use the component and how to link it with others for, e.g., soil water balance, diseases, abiotic damages.