Field Surveys
We conduct field surveys for soil sampling continuously - primarily around the UK, Kenya, and Colombia, but also in France; future plans include Germany, Romania, and the US. We welcome collaborations and co-surveying along other research projects.
Experimental design
Our constantly evolving and further optimised experimental setup in the field strives to accelerate data acquisition while illuminating soil properties down to 5-10cm scales at all relevant depths – often the topsoil (0-30cm), but also the subsoil or water tables.
Typically, we place a small number of sensors within a 1D line, or 2D quadrangle/triangular geometry onto the soil, and apply gentle hammer strikes in a variety of locations to create data coverage of criss-crossing raypaths between hammer strike locations and sensors. This allows us to construct tomographic 3D scans of the soil, much like in medical imaging such as CAT scans or ultrasound imaging.
Data transfer & storage
Data are uploaded to a cloud, where data quality control and analysis can resume promptly. We are working on a resilient, decentralised data storage concept to allow for local storage, honouring local requirements for storage and ownership, as well as secure transfer and ensuring anonymity if desired. Open-source pipelines, unit testing, encryption, and decentralised storage are key ingredients for this endeavour.