Quantifying soil variability in GIS applications: II Spatial distribution of soil properties

Abstract

Application of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to environmental problems requires a spatial delineation of soil properties and some a priori knowledge of their variability. In the U.S.A. estimated soil properties are available from soil surveys published by the National Cooperative Soil Survey. However, information on the extent and nature of their variability is generally lacking. To remedy the situation, variability of selected soil properties measured at farm and watershed scales was compared with published values using geostatistical methods. Results showed that the variability of bulk density and hydraulic conductivity can be estimated by comparing regularized variograms of measured and published values. An overlay method was proposed that combines measured and published delineations of soil properties into an overlay with the properties of both. The technique makes it possible to incorporate variability into a GIS analysis using data available from published soil surveys.