Deciphering Soil Spatial Variability through Geostatistics and Interpolation Techniques

Mohamed A. E. AbdelRahman, Yasser M. Zakarya, Mohamed M. Metwaly and Georgios Koubouris
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Mohamed A. E. AbdelRahman: National Authority for Remote Sensing and Space Sciences, Cairo 11769, Egypt
Yasser M. Zakarya: Faculty of Agriculture, Ain-Shams University, Shubra Gardens 11241, Egypt
Mohamed M. Metwaly: National Authority for Remote Sensing and Space Sciences, Cairo 11769, Egypt
Georgios Koubouris: Institute for Olive Tree, Subtropical Crops and Viticulture, ELGO DEMETER, Agrokipio, 73100 Chania, Greece

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 13, issue 1, 1-13

Abstract: Detailed knowledge of soil properties is fundamentally important for optimizing agriculture practices and management. Meanwhile, the spatial distribution of soil physicochemical properties is considered a fundamental input of any sustainable agricultural planning. In the present study, ordinary kriging, regression kriging and IDW were chosen for deciphering soil spatial variability and mapping soil properties in a reclaimed area of the Behera Governorate of Egypt where soil arose from two different types, one sandstone and the other limestone. Geostatistics were used to show the interrelationships and conditions of soil properties (available phosphorus, potassium and nitrogen, EC, pH, Sp, ESP, CEC, OC, SAR, and CaCO 3 ). The results of mapping spatial soil variability by Geostatistics could be used for precision agriculture applications. Based on the soil test results, nutrient management recommendations should be applied regarding variable rates of fertilizers. The performance of the maps was evaluated using Mean square error (MSE). Inverse distance weight (IDW) showed higher efficiency than Kriging as a prediction method for mapping the studied soil properties in the study area. The results of the present study suggest that the application of the selected fit model worldwide in any relevant study of soil properties of different geological sources is feasible.

Keywords: geostatistics; IDW; Kriging; Cokriging; soil properties (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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