Soil Moisture Metadata Guidance

This document was developed in response to the identification of metadata and data quality guidelines for in situ soil moisture monitoring as a top priority for the National Coordinated Soil Moisture Monitoring Network (NCSMMN) at the National Soil Moisture Workshop in 2022. This document focuses on metadata guidelines, while an accompanying Soil Moisture Data Quality Guidance document outlines soil moisture data quality standards. 

Due to the rapid expansion of soil moisture monitoring networks in the past decades, a number of disparate practices and standards exist regarding the definition and reporting of appropriate and necessary metadata for soil moisture monitoring networks. This document is intended to address and harmonize these various practices into an overarching synthesis of best practice.