Digital Mapping of Soil Properties Using Multivariate Statistical Analysis and ASTER Data in an Arid Region

Digital Mapping of Soil PropertiesModeling and mapping of soil properties has been identified as key for effective land degradation management and mitigation. The ability to model and map soil properties at sufficient accuracy for a large agriculture area is demonstrated using Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) imagery. Soil samples were collected in the El-Tina Plain, Sinai, Egypt, concurrently with the acquisition of ASTER imagery, and measured for soil electrical conductivity (ECe), clay content and soil organic matter (OM). An ASTER image covering the study area was preprocessed, and two predictive models, multivariate adaptive regression splines (MARS) and the partial least squares regression (PLSR), were constructed based on the ASTER spectra. For all three soil properties, the results of MARS models were better than those of the respective PLSR models, with cross-validation estimated R2 of 0.85 and 0.80 for ECe, 0.94 and 0.90 for clay content and 0.79 and 0.73 for OM. Independent validation of ECe, clay content and OM maps with 32 soil samples showed the better performance of the MARS models, with R2 = 0.81, 0.89 and 0.73, respectively, compared to R2 = 0.78, 0.87 and 0.71 for the PLSR models. The results indicated that MARS is a more suitable and superior modeling technique than PLSR for the estimation and mapping of soil salinity (ECe), clay content and OM. The method developed in this paper was found to be reliable and accurate for digital soil mapping in arid and semi-arid environments.

Authors: Said Nawar | Henning Buddenbaum | Joachim Hill

Keywords: digital soil mapping; soil properties; ASTER; PLSR; MARS; Egypt

Digital mapping of soil properties using multivariate statistical analysis and ASTER data in an arid region, spectroscopy measurements were collected using a Spectral Evolution high resolution field portable spectroradiometer. Spectral Evolution is a leading manufacturer of field-portable UV-Vis-NIR remote sensing spectroradiometers and spectrometers for applications including geological remote sensing, ground-truthing, spectral remote sensing, environmental and climate research, crop and soil research, vegetative studies, forestry and canopy studies, radiometric calibration transfer, upwelling and downwelling measurement and more. Our UV-Vis-NIR spectrometers and spectroradiometers provide the best combination of high resolution and high sensitivity resulting in the most precise field portable instruments available on the market.

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