Use of an expert system to map forest soils from a geographical information system

Abstract

Mapping forest soils using conventional methods is time consuming and expensive. An expert system is described and applied to the mapping of five forest soil-landscape units formed on a single granitoid parent material. Three thematic maps were considered important in influencing the distribution of soils. The first showed the distribution of nine classes of native eucalypt forests, and the second and third were derived from a digital elevation model and represented slope gradient and a soil wetness index combined with topographical position. These layers were input to a raster based geographical information system (GIS) and then geometrically co-registered to a regular 30 m grid. From a knowledge of soil distributions, the relationships between the soil-landscape units and the three data layers were quantified by an experienced soil scientist and used as rules in a rule based expert system. The thematic layers accessed from the GIS provided data for the expert system to infer the forest soil-landscape unit most likely to occur at any given pixel. The soil-landscape map output by the expert system compared favourably with a conventional soil-landscape map generated using interpretation of aerial photographs.     

The role of visualisation in the choice of stationary non-separable space–time covariance functions: an application to air pollution data

Modelling spatio-temporal dependencies resulting from dynamic processes that evolve in both space and time is essential in many scientific fields. Spatio-temporal Kriging is one of the space–time procedures, which has progressed the most over the last few years. Kriging predictions strongly depend on the covariance function associated with the stochastic process under study. Therefore, the choice of such a covariance function, which is usually based on empirical covariance, is a core aspect in the prediction procedure. As the empirical covariance is not necessarily a permissible covariance function, it is necessary to fit a valid covariance model. Due to the complexity of these valid models in the spatio-temporal case, visualising them is of great help, at least when selecting the set of candidate models to represent the spatio-temporal dependencies suggested by the empirical covariogram. We focus on the visualisation of the most interesting stationary non-separable covariance functions and how they change as their main parameters take different values. We wrote a specialised code for visualisation purposes. In order to illustrate the usefulness of visualisation when choosing the appropriate non-separable spatio-temporal covariance model, we focus on an important pollution problem, namely the levels of carbon monoxide, in the city of Madrid, Spain.     

Cumulative impacts on seabed habitats: An indicator for assessments of good environmental status

The European seas are under anthropogenic pressures impacting the state of water quality, benthic habitats and species. The EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) requires the Member States to assess the impacts of pressures and make a programme of measures leading to good environmental status (GES) by 2020. This study presents a method for assessing the quantity and distribution of anthropogenic impacts on benthic habitats in the Baltic Sea by using spatial data of human pressures and benthic habitats. The southern sub-basins were more extensively impacted than the northern sub-basins. Over the entire sea area, deep sea habitats were more impacted than shallower infralittoral and circalittoral habitats. Sand and coarse sediments were the seabed types relatively most impacted in the Baltic Sea scale. A comparison against tentative thresholds for GES showed that in the sub-basin scale only one third of the habitat types was in GES.     

土壤饱和导水率空间预测的不确定性分析

当土壤转换函数应用于土壤水力性质估计时,对于预测值的不确定性往往容易被忽视。为了有针对性地提出减少这种不确定性的方法和措施,提高土壤转换函数的实际应用能力,以两种现有的土壤转换函数(Vereecken和HYPRES模型)为例,将其应用于山东省平度市土壤饱和导水率的空间预测,并利用拉丁超立方抽样(LHS)方法对预测结果的不确定性进行了分析。结果表明,饱和导水率空间预测的不确定性主要来源于土壤基本性质的空间插值误差和土壤转换函数自身的预测误差。当Vereecken模型应用于饱和导水率空间预测时,预测结果的不确定性主要由土壤基本性质空间插值误差所决定,土壤转换函数预测误差的影响较小,而HYPRES模型则是受二者的双重影响。     

逐点激发井深设计网格化方法的选取

随着地震勘探的不断深入,地震资料采集要求主频足够高,频带足够宽,能量足够强,而逐点激发井深设计有助于获得满意的地震信号,要设计合理的井深,网格化方法的选取非常重要。这里首先介绍了Surfer软件中十二种网格化方法原理特征,以及在逐点井深设计上的应用;然后运用Surfer软件中不同的插值方法,对BIN12工区岩性数据进行网格的效果对比与网格的密度探讨,选取了最佳的网格化方法;最后针对几种网格化方法进行井深对比试验,通过资料分析,说明了设计的井深合理,选取网格化方法的效果较好。     

地磁匹配导航中几项关键技术研究

地磁匹配导航的实质是数字地图的匹配.地磁数据库的精度和地磁适配区的选择是地磁匹配导航中的2项关键技术.文中把克吕格插值算法引入到地磁图的重构中,仿真结果表明了其有效性;同时把熵选择法和统计特征法引入到地磁适配区的选择中,通过仿真结果对2种方法进行比较,结果表明,熵选择法综合效果更好,更适合于在实际中应用.     

航测数据处理中的空间插值方法比较

航测数据的航线间距与采样点间距差异很大,生成等值线时需要进行空间插值.以云南省江川地区的航测数据为实验数据源,分别采用反距离权重插值(IDW)、规则样条函数插值(Regularized Spline)、张力样条函数(Tension Spline)插值和Kriging插值等4种插值方法,对航测数据进行分析与比较,从中选出...     

几种建立DEM模型插值方法精度的交叉验证

建立DEM模型时需要对离散的高程点进行空间插值,实现这一目的的插值方法有很多种。文章主要选择了6种常用的插值方法,分别在平原、丘陵和高山几种不同复杂程度的环境下对其插值的精度使用交叉验证方法进行评估。结果表明,同样的插值方法对不同复杂程度的地形效果是不一致的,多种插值方法中以克里金插值方法的插值适用性最强,精度最高。     

石羊河流域近50 a来日照时数的时空变化特征分析

 基于石羊河流域5个气象站点1959—2008年的日照时数资料,采用气候倾向率分析、Kriging空间插值、Mann-Kendall检验、小波分析等方法对石羊河流域日照时数的变化特征进行了分析。结果表明,近50 a来,石羊河流域年日照时数呈显著增加趋势,其变化倾向率为33.9 h/10a;四季日照时数均呈增加趋势,春季增加最显著,对年日照时数的贡献率最大,冬季次之。石羊河流域日照时数空间差异显著,表现为年日照时数自南向北递增。突变分析表明,1987年为日照时数的突变年。Morlet小波分析表明,石羊河流域年日照时数存在8 a的显著周期。