A new, flexible and widely applicable software package for the simulation of one-dimensional moisture flow: SoWaM

Most one-dimensional soil moisture flow simulation models have restricted applicability due to (amongst other things): i) insufficient user flexibility; ii) a lack of user friendliness; iii) dependency on scale, temporal and/or spatial, and iv) fixed boundary conditions. Therefore, we developed a simple and highly flexible software package to simulate, visualize and analyze 1-D moisture flow in soils: SoWaM (Soil Water Model). The package has a modular setup and consists of a range of tools to visualize, analyze and compare input data and results. Soil hydraulic properties for each specified soil layer can be defined by either Van Genuchten parameters or cubical splines. Since the model does not impose limits on element size or time interval, it is possible to perform simulations in very high detail, both spatially and temporally. Furthermore, four different criteria for irrigation scheduling have been implemented. The SoWaM package provides an accurate, simple and highly flexible tool to simulate soil moisture flow and to evaluate the effects of various factors on soil water movement, such as timing and amount of irrigation, soil hydraulic properties and soil layering. Results of a case study are presented to illustrate model performance.