Estimating Soil Properties with a Mobile Phone

摘要

Several soil properties can be used to estimate soil health and suitability for specific land use. These properties include, but are not restricted to, organic matter content, pH, cation exchange capacity, C/N ratio, texture and structure. These properties provide broad information about the capacity of the soil to provide nutrients, water and physical support to crops. They also provide information about soil erosion and compaction risk, The measurement of these properties is traditionally carried out through laboratory analysis which delays decision-making. Some of these properties can be estimated from an understanding of the soil-forming characteristics and visual analysis of the soil profile. Here, a method is presented that automates estimating soil fertility properties using image analysis of field-based topsoil images, including image morphometries. A database of Scottish soil samples has been used to generate a model, which links spatial data sets and image analysis to produce estimates ofsoil fertility properties. A mobile phone app has been produced that provides an estimate of soil organic matter rapidly and for free.