Hyperspectral remote sensing as an alternative to estimate soil attributes

Abstract

Minimizing environmental impacts and increasing crop productivity depend mainly on the knowledge of chemical, physical and mineralogical characteristics of the soil attributes. However, traditional methods are time-consuming and costly. The objective of this study was to determine and validate a method to quantify soil attributes using UV-Vis-NIR Spectroscopy as an alternative to conventional methods of soil analyses. The work comprised two main phases: (1) creation and calibration of statistical models to determine the soil attributes derived from spectral data extracted from soil samples collected in area 1, (2) validation of statistical models in area 2 and correlations between the estimated and observed values (conventional method) for each soil attribute. The equations of the attributes Fe2O3, Al2O3, and clay reached R2 > 0.80 and may be applied to a different database than the one that was used to generate the equations, provided that they belong to the same study site.