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Digital cartography of soil classes with fuzzy logic in mountain areas
Ángel R. Valera
María C. Pineda
Jesús A. Viloria
Journal of Geography and Cartography 2022, 5(2), 68-76; https://doi.org/10.24294/jgc.v5i2.1674
Submitted:22 May 2022
Accepted:07 Jul 2022
Published:14 Jul 2022
Abstract

In order to strengthen the study of soil-landscape relationships in mountain areas, a digital soil mapping approach based on fuzzy set theory was applied. Initially, soil properties were estimated with the regression kriging (RK) method, combining soil data and auxiliary information derived from a digital elevation model (DEM) and satellite images. Subsequently, the grouping of soil properties in raster format was performed with the fuzzy c-means (FCM) algorithm, whose final product resulted in a fuzzy soil class variation model at a semi-detailed scale. The validation of the model showed an overall reliability of 88% and a Kappa index of 84%, which shows the usefulness of fuzzy clustering in the evaluation of soil-landscape relationships and in the correlation with soil taxonomic categories.

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