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An integrated method of selecting environmental covariates for predictive soil depth mapping
LU Yuan-yuan, LIU Feng, ZHAO Yu-guo, SONG Xiao-dong, ZHANG Gan-lin
2019, 18 (2): 301-315.   DOI: 10.1016/S2095-3119(18)61936-7
Abstract299)      PDF (20438KB)(198)      
Environmental covariates are the basis of predictive soil mapping.  Their selection determines the performance of soil mapping to a great extent, especially in cases where the number of soil samples is limited but soil spatial heterogeneity is high.  In this study, we proposed an integrated method to select environmental covariates for predictive soil depth mapping.  First, candidate variables that may influence the development of soil depth were selected based on pedogenetic knowledge.  Second, three conventional methods (Pearson correlation analysis (PsCA), generalized additive models (GAMs), and Random Forest (RF)) were used to generate optimal combinations of environmental covariates.  Finally, three optimal combinations were integrated to produce a final combination based on the importance and occurrence frequency of each environmental covariate.  We tested this method for soil depth mapping in the upper reaches of the Heihe River Basin in Northwest China.  A total of 129 soil sampling sites were collected using a representative sampling strategy, and RF and support vector machine (SVM) models were used to map soil depth.  The results showed that compared to the set of environmental covariates selected by the three conventional selection methods, the set of environmental covariates selected by the proposed method achieved higher mapping accuracy.  The combination from the proposed method obtained a root mean square error (RMSE) of 11.88 cm, which was 2.25–7.64 cm lower than the other methods, and an R2 value of 0.76, which was 0.08–0.26 higher than the other methods.  The results suggest that our method can be used as an alternative to the conventional methods for soil depth mapping and may also be effective for mapping other soil properties.
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Recent progress and future prospect of digital soil mapping: A review
ZHANG Gan-lin, LIU Feng, SONG Xiao-dong
2017, 16 (12): 2871-2885.   DOI: 10.1016/S2095-3119(17)61762-3
Abstract1525)      PDF (778KB)(134)      
To deal with the global and regional issues including food security, climate change, land degradation, biodiversity loss, water resource management, and ecosystem health, detailed accurate spatial soil information is urgently needed.  This drives the worldwide development of digital soil mapping.  In recent years, significant progresses have been made in different aspects of digital soil mapping.  The main purpose of this paper is to provide a review for the major progresses of digital soil mapping in the last decade.  First, we briefly described the rise of digital soil mapping and outlined important milestones and their influence, and main paradigms in digital soil mapping.  Then, we reviewed the progresses in legacy soil data, environmental covariates, soil sampling, predictive models and the applications of digital soil mapping products.  Finally, we summarized the main trends and future prospect as revealed by studies up to now.  We concluded that although the digital soil mapping is now moving towards mature to meet various demands of soil information, challenges including new theories, methodologies and applications of digital soil mapping, especially for highly heterogeneous and human-affected environments, still exist and need to be addressed in the future.
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