DIGITAL SOIL MAPPING FOR SMART AGRICULTURE: THE SOLIM METHOD AND SOFTWARE PLATFORMS

Abstract

The key challenges faced by many of the existing digital soil mapping (DSM) techniques are the rigid requirements on the size of soil samples to extract the relationships needed and on the stationarity of the extracted relationships. These requirements limit the application of these DSM techniques. This paper provides an overview of the SoLIM approach and an introduction to the operation of SoLIM through the software platforms available. SoLIM is based on the Third Law of Geography, which calls for the comparison of similarity in geographic (environmental) configuration of a prototype and an unsampled location and then use this similarity to predict the value of a soil property at a given location. DSM under SoLIM approach removes requirements on the sample size and the stationarity assumption. In addition, the uncertainty computed based on the similarities can be used to improve the efficiency of error reduction efforts. The SoLIM approach has been implemented in two platforms: SoLIM Solutions and CyberSoLIM. The theoretical foundation and the availability of software platforms under SoLIM make DSM possible and convenient over large and complex geographic regions.