Geospatial modeling of surface soil texture of agricultural land using fuzzy logic, geostatistics and GIS techniques

ABSTRACT

Soil texture is a key controlling factor of soil properties and its functions include water and nutrient holding capacity, retention of pollutants, root development, soil biodiversity, and biogeochemical cycling. From the geotechnical standpoint, it is interesting to analyze the soil texture in regions due to its relation with the infiltration and runoff processes and, consequently, the effect on erosion processes. The purpose of this study is to present a methodology that provides the soil texture spatial variation by using Fuzzy logic theory and geostatistical technique in Geographic Information System (GIS) platform. A total of 140 soil samples were taken from topsoil (0–30 cm) in the study area located in the north of Guilan Province, the southern coast of Caspian Sea, Northern Iran. The soil textural classes were converted to numerical values (fuzzy values) using the fuzzy logic concept. The fuzzy values were spatially interpolated by ordinary kriging method such that the fitted model on experimental semi-variogram was exponential with moderate structure. The results showed the accuracy of soil texture predictive map was acceptable according to the values of normalized root-mean-square error for train data set (0.182) and test data set (0.179). The knowledge of the spatial variability of soil properties such as the soil texture can be an important tool for land-use planning in order to reduce the potential soil losses during rainy seasons. The results indicated that the integration of fuzzy logic, geostatistics, and GIS can improve the interpolation process.

KEYWORDS:

• Fuzzy logic
• GIS
• ordinary kriging
• soil texture class
• spatial variability

Acknowledgments

This project was funded by a grant from the Soil and Water Research Institute of Iran. The authors wish to express their sincere thanks to the Soil and Water Research Institute of Iran for supporting field studies and samplings. The authors are grateful to anonymous reviewers who considerably improved the quality of the manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

The funding for the research was provided by the Soil and Water Research Institute of Iran.