Pr

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First DSM working group meeting
University of Miskolc, Hungary, 7-8 April,
2005
Some learnings and open questions from the
Montpellier DSM workshop
P. Lagacherie Laboratoire détude des
interactions Sol Agrosystème - Hydrosystème
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The Workshop topics
TOPIC 1 INTRODUCTION BACKGROUND TO DIGITAL SOIL
MAPPING (1 paper)
TOPIC 2 PROGRESS, EXAMPLES AND ECONOMICS OF
DIGITAL SOIL MAPPING (12 papers)
TOPIC 3 SAMPLING METHODS FOR CREATING DIGITAL
SOIL MAPS (4 papers)
TOPIC 4 REPRESENTATION OF DIGITAL SOIL
MAPS (5 papers)
TOPIC 5 QUALITY ASSESSMENT OF DIGITAL SOIL MAPS
(4 papers)
TOPIC 6 NEW ENVIRONMENTAL COVARIATES, NEW
SOURCES OF ENVIRONMENTAL COVARIATES, FOR DIGITAL
SOIL MAPPING (8 papers)
TOPIC 7 QUANTITATIVE MODELLING FOR PREDICTING
SOIL CLASSES AND ATTRIBUTES (23
papers)
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Outline

• DSM some generic comments

• New environmental covariates and new sources of
  environmental covariates for DSM

• Collecting soil data

• Building DSM functions

• Evaluating the quality of digital soil maps

• Representation of Digital Soil Mapping outputs

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DSM some generic comments and questions

• DSM is expected to work better than conventional
  surveys

• DSM requires capital input and mixed skill teams

• Which DSM outputs?

• How to graft DSM on to existing soil database
  programs?

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New environmental covariates and new sources of
environmental covariates for DSM

• Great variety of environmental covariates tested.
  DEM remains the most common

• Need to express the mental models of pedogenesis
  to select the appropriate covariables

• Preprocessings of covariates (classifications,
  decomposition of scale factors)

• How to deal with newly available covariates in
  the future?

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Collecting soil data for DSM

• Only a few contributions to this topic

• Sampling methods based on statistical and
  geostatistical techniques

• Which criteria for a DSM sampling? How to deal
  with them?

• From site sampling to area sampling is this
  different ?

• How to use existing soil data?

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Building DSM functions

• Topic 7 was the most populated

• Mostly non-spatial approaches

• Soil surveyor approaches vs pedometric ones

• How to better associate soil surveyors and
  pedometrician?

• How to deal with multiscale soil variations?

• How to deal with variations in time?

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Evaluating the quality of digital soil maps

• A critical point

• Need of an unified framework of quality
  assessment

• The quality information must be meaningful to
  users

• How to validate area soil prediction?

• How to validate quality according to each user
  application?

• How to communicate quality to the users?

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Representation of Digital Soil Mapping outputs

• The traditional 2D choropleth map is insufficient

• Modern GIS and visualization tools can be used to
  valorize DSM to the users.

• and to assist us in building DSM functions

• Which compromise between quantity of displayed
  information and complexity?

• Can visualisation tools and web be used to
  promoteDSM ?

• How far must we go?

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To go further

• From the research phase to actual production of
  soil maps and soil data

• Need of a generic tool Spatial Soil Inference
  System ?

• Lets organize us

• Structure a research project

• Select pilot areas that cover the various data
  configuration within Europe

• Create a common DSM toolbox with easy available
  functions

• Build a Version 0 of a Digital Soil Mapper

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A Spatial Soil Inference System ( Lagacherie
McBratney, 2005)
User interface
User data