Integrating pedological knowledge into digital soil mapping
Résumé
Classical soil survey usually integrated existing pedological knowledge to enhance its efficiency and compensate for very low standard sampling densities. This approach has been criticised because the information taken into account was not explicitly specified and validation procedures were not developed. We advocate that pedological knowledge of soil landscape distribution, soil-forming factors and soil processes is essential to modern soil spatial analysis and may be rigorously integrated into soil mapping. Basic reasons for such integration are an increase in prediction efficiency and also the necessity to link soil maps to dynamic modelling, enabling risk assessment and impact studies. Several approaches are reviewed including spatial prediction techniques using existing soil maps and spatial modelling based on soil-forming factors. Combination in the near future of space and time modelling demands additional integration of the dynamics of physical and biochemical soil processes.