Digital Soil Mapping with Limited Data
There has been considerable expansion in the use of digital soil mapping technologies and development of methodologies that improve digital soil mapping at all scales and levels of resolution. These developments have occurred in all parts of the world in
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Alfred E. Hartemink · Alex McBratney · Maria de Lourdes Mendonc¸a-Santos Editors
Digital Soil Mapping with Limited Data
With a foreword by Robert J. Ahrens
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Editors Alfred E. Hartemink ISRIC – World Soil Information 6700 AJ Wageningen The Netherlands [email protected] Maria de Lourdes Mendonc¸a-Santos EMBRAPA-Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation/CNPS-The National Centre of Soil Research Rua Jardim Botˆanico. 1024 CEP.22.460-000 Rio de Janeiro-RJ, Brazil [email protected]
ISBN: 978-1-4020-8591-8
Alex McBratney University of Sydney McMillan Building A05 Science Rd. NSW, Camperdown, Sydney 2006 Fac. of Agriculture Australia [email protected]
e-ISBN: 978-1-4020-8592-5
Library of Congress Control Number: 2008927194 2008 Springer Science+Business Media B.V. No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work.
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Foreword
Significant technological advances have been few and far between in the past approximately one hundred years of soil survey activities. Perhaps one of the most innovative techniques in the history of soil survey was the introduction of aerial photographs as base maps for field mapping, which replaced the conventional base map laboriously prepared by planetable and alidade. Such a relatively simple idea by today’s standards revolutionized soil surveys by vastly increasing the accuracy and efficiently. Yet, even this innovative approach did not gain universal acceptance immediately and was hampered by a lack of aerial coverage of the world, funds to cover the costs, and in some cases a reluctance by some soil mappers and cartographers to change. Digital Soil Mapping (DSM), which is already being used and tested by groups of dedicated and innovative pedologists, is perhaps the next great advancement in delivering soil survey information. However, like many new technologies, it too has yet to gain universal acceptance and is hampered by ignorance on the part of some pedologists and other scientists. DSM is a spatial soil information system created by numerical models that account for the spatial and temporal variations of soil properties based on soil information and related environmental variables (Lagacheric and McBratney, 2007). Pedologists working with DSM technology are in the process of addressing questions and concerns. Some of these questions include production and processing of covariates (soil forming factors derived from remote sensing and existing soil maps), the collection of soil data, the development of soil predictions based on numerical models, and the representation of digital soil maps. Covariates include the traditional soil forming
