Visualizing soil surfaces and crop residues

A test case for visualizing field and laboratory data pertaining to soil erosion and infiltration is examined. Several visualization techniques were used to derive image data from an experiment in which the effect of a sequence of five rainfalls on a laboratory-formed soil surface was measured. The base data are millimeter-resolution elevation models generated using a laser-scanning device. The surfaces generated by the laser scanner are visualized as perspective views. Changes in the soil surface with cumulative rainfall are examined by visualizing differences between successive laser-scanned surfaces. The modeling of straw coverage, which can influence infiltration, overland flow, and erosion, using a random process model is discussed.< >