Hydrological parameters are scale dependent. Efficient monitoring techniques capable of measuring hydrological parameters, such as soil moisture content (θ), over a wide range of spatial scales are essential for understanding the complexity of water and energy movement across the landscape. Techniques to measure θ over spatial scales in the range from centimeters to thousands of meters, however, are sorely lacking. Recent improvements in the distributed temperature sensing (DTS) technology supported the development of novel techniques to fill that gap. However, improvements in the accuracy and applicability of DTS techniques are still needed. This study investigates the possibility of improving the accuracy of the fiber optics dual‐probe heat‐pulse (FO‐DPHP) DTS technique by using a new design to maintain the spacing between the FO‐DPHP probes and by introducing a novel data interpretation approach. The accuracy of the novel FO‐DPHP design was tested at different θ in a sand column experiment. The FO‐DPHP measurements obtained using traditional and novel data interpretation approaches were compared against independent measurements from several calibrated soil water content (EC5) sensors. Monte‐Carlo analyses were also performed to assess the impact of DTS measurement errors on the accuracy achieved using the data interpretation approaches. The novel design and data interpretation approach allowed for accurate measurements of soil thermal properties and θ without the need to perform a hard‐to‐achieve soil‐specific calibration. Measured θ had mean errors and standard deviations <0.03 and <0.01 m3 m−3, respectively, for moisture conditions ranging from dry to near saturation. The standard deviation in the measured heat capacity was <0.01 MJ m−3 K−1.

Increasing interest in studying the variability of soil water content and its spatial scale dependency necessitates the development of new techniques to accurately monitor soil water over a wide range of spatial scales. Distributed Temperature Sensing (DTS) techniques offer unprecedented opportunities to measure temperature with a spatial resolution of a few centimeters over several kilometers, which can be used to measure soil moisture. This study is the first of its kind that investigates under field conditions the feasibility of combining the Dual‐Probe Heat‐Pulse (DPHP) technique with the DTS technology to measure soil thermal properties and variation in soil moisture. A field experiment was conducted over a 30 m transect in the Lake Wheeler Field laboratory in Raleigh, NC. Three different DPHP sensors were constructed from combinations of different fiber optic cables and heating elements and were tested to assess their performance and the effect of their construction characteristics on their accuracy. Measurements were taken over different soil moisture conditions and the system performance was compared against independent soil water content sensors. The system was able to track changes in soil water content with a mean RMSE of 0.02 m3 m−3 using the optimal DPHP sensor. The key advantage of the tested system is that it does not need any site‐specific calibrations typically required for other DTS‐based systems. The findings of this study provide some practical information and measures that need to be taken for successful DTS‐DPHP construction and application under field conditions.

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Scour events can severely change the characteristics of streams and impose detrimental hazards on any structures built on them. The development of robust and accurate devices to monitor scour is therefore essential for studying and developing mitigation strategies for these adverse consequences. This technical note introduces a novel scour-monitoring device that utilizes new advances in the fiber-optic distributed temperature sensing (FO-DTS) technology. The novel FO-DTS scour-monitoring device utilizes the differential thermal responses of sediment, water, and air media to a heating event to accurately identify the locations of the interfaces between them. The performance of the device was tested in a laboratory flume under flow conditions with water velocities ranging from 0 m/s to 0.16 m/s. In addition, the effect of the measurement duration on the device’s measurement accuracy was also investigated. The FO-DTS scour-monitoring device managed to detect the sediment–water and water–air interfaces with average absolute errors of 1.60 cm and 0.63 cm, respectively. A measurement duration of fewer than 238 s was sufficient to obtain stable measurements of the locations of the sediment–water and water–air interfaces for all the tested flow conditions.

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