THE ROLE OF SOIL MOISTURE

Soil moisture may sound like a narrow topic, but it plays an important role in the water, energy and carbon cycles—and connects processes ranging from drought and flooding to agriculture, wildfire and groundwater recharge.

I created this poster for NOAA’s National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) and the National Coordinated Soil Moisture Monitoring Network (NCSMMN) to help explain those connections. Working with scientists and subject-matter experts, I developed a cutaway landscape that brings above- and below-ground processes together in a single visual system.

The central illustration follows water as it moves through the landscape through precipitation, runoff, infiltration, percolation, groundwater recharge, evaporation and transpiration. It also shows how soil moisture interacts with forests, agriculture, wetlands and human water management, and how changing conditions can contribute to hazards such as drought, flooding, erosion, dust generation, landslides and wildfire.

One of the biggest design challenges was showing many interconnected processes without overwhelming the reader. I used the landscape itself to organize the information, moving from dry agricultural areas through irrigated land, mountains and forests to wetlands and surface water. A cutaway view made it possible to connect what readers see above ground with less visible processes occurring within the soil and aquifer below.

I also developed the poster’s overall information hierarchy, using color, typography, arrows and labels to distinguish the three larger systems—energy, water and carbon cycles—from individual soil-moisture processes. A smaller soil-profile diagram provides additional context for where soil moisture occurs, from the unsaturated vadose zone through the capillary fringe to groundwater.

The final poster combines scientific illustration, information design and science communication to turn a complex network of processes into a visual explanation that can be explored at multiple levels: understood quickly from the overall landscape, or read more deeply through the detailed labels and definitions.

Client: NOAA / National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) / National Coordinated Soil Moisture Monitoring Network
Role: Scientific illustration, information design, research and visual communication
Tools: Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop
Year: 2023