CSU Launches Quench, Giving Farmers and Foresters Real-Time Soil Moisture Data

Colorado State University launched Quench, a free web-based platform that gives the public access to real-time and historical soil moisture readings across Colorado. The platform pulls data from multiple monitoring networks into a single map-based tool—the first statewide, centralized resource.

For Colorado farmers and land managers facing worsening drought and fire seasons, the platform lets farmers time irrigation and helps land managers plan fire response and drought strategy. Colorado soils hold more than twice the water that flows on the surface, making soil moisture data critical to water forecasting, drought assessment, and wildfire planning.

"Soil moisture is one of the most under-monitored natural resources, yet it is a foundational driver of ecosystem services and risk management," said Helen Silver, co-director of CSU's Integrated Rocky Mountain-region Innovation Center for Healthy Soils, or IN-RICHES. "Because soil moisture data are scarce and difficult to access, this project addresses both challenges by expanding infrastructure while making information openly available."

CSU backed the effort with significant investment. Using $1.45 million in federal funding from spring 2023, the university installed 64 new sensors from May to October, expanding monitoring capacity by 60 percent. The Colorado Water Plan Grant Program has since funded 15 more sensors for installation this year. The platform is available at https://quench.colostate.edu.

"The integration of soil moisture data into a single platform is a monumental advancement," said Megan Machmuller, IN-RICHES co-director and research scientist in CSU's Soil and Crop Sciences Department. "This publicly accessible tool will streamline comparisons across the state, providing critical insights for managing water resources and proactively addressing risks."

Farmers can time irrigation and monitor agricultural drought. Fire and forest managers can track soil dryness to inform fire prediction and controlled burns, as well as flood risk planning and timber management decisions.

Eric Schroder, a soil scientist with the U.S. Forest Service in Colorado, said the tool will "support and improve our ongoing management of USFS lands in Colorado."

CSU plans to continue upgrading Quench, eventually integrating satellite-based soil moisture data and additional analytical tools to deepen statewide drought and wildfire risk analysis.