Climate & Water Library

The science behind what the ground is telling you.

Short, sourced explainers on soil moisture, drought, fire weather and salinity — each one linked to the tools that watch it.

Soil · 5 min readField Capacity, Wilting Point and Plant-Available WaterThe three reference points that turn a raw soil-moisture percentage into a decision: where gravity stops draining, where plants stop recovering, and the reservoir in between.Read Fire · 5 min readHow Fire Weather WorksWildfire readiness is decided long before smoke appears — by how dry the fuels are, how hard the wind blows, and how the atmosphere behaves overhead.Read Drought · 4 min readReading the US Drought MonitorThose D0–D4 maps are more than color-coded weather. Here is how the weekly drought categories are made, what they mean, and where they stop.Read Soil · 4 min readSalinity and Electrical Conductivity: What the Numbers MeanSalt is invisible until it costs you a crop or a green. Electrical conductivity turns dissolved salt into a number — here is how to read it.Read Water · 4 min readWhat Is Evapotranspiration (ET)?Evaporation from the soil plus transpiration from plants is how an irrigated landscape loses water. Reference ET turns that loss into a number you can schedule against.Read Water · 5 min readWhat Is Soil Moisture?Soil moisture is the water held in the spaces between soil particles — the reservoir roots actually drink from. Here is what a reading means and why the ground tells a different story than the sky.Read Drought · 5 min readWhy Trees Die in DroughtTrees rarely die of thirst overnight. Drought works through water-transport failure, depleted energy reserves, and weakened defenses — often over several seasons.Read

Water

2 explainers

Soil

2 explainers

Drought

2 explainers

Fire

1 explainer

The library is general education drawn from public science sources — the FAO, USGS, NOAA, the National Weather Service, NIFC, USDA and the National Drought Mitigation Center. It is not site-specific agronomic advice, and nothing here is presented as a GroundWorx measurement. For what your own property is doing, start with a monitored root zone.

Published field expertise

Agronomy, grounded in experience.

Selected writing by GroundWorx’s Shawn Emerson, Mark Woodward and Consulting Agronomist Pat Gross on water management and golf-course operations.

Golf Course News · 2012

Innovative Irrigation

Shawn Emerson

A first-person account of soil sensing, salinity management and integrated water telemetry at Desert Mountain. Describes historical work with other technology, not GroundWorx results.

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Golfdom · 2015

Being a superintendent: It’s not as easy as we make it look

Mark Woodward

The operational responsibilities behind course conditions, including water management, irrigation, environmental compliance and budgeting.

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Golfdom · 2018

Bunker renovation 101

Mark Woodward

Practical considerations for bunker drainage, sand consistency, playability and renovation planning.

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USGA Green Section Record · 2016

How to Develop a Water Budget for Your Golf Course

Patrick J. Gross and Christopher Hartwiger

A practical method for estimating golf-course water needs and comparing the budget with actual use.

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USGA · 2016

Five Things To Know About Water Management On Greens During Summer

Pat Gross

Using soil-moisture readings to guide irrigation, avoid overwatering and target hand watering on greens.

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Professional educational articles, not doctoral research or GroundWorx validation studies. Publications retain their original authors and dates; inclusion does not imply endorsement of GroundWorx by USGA, GCSAA or any publisher. Historical results using other technology are not GroundWorx results.

Turn the science into a plan for your property.

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